


Axl Heck is A Wallbanger

by Blackroxduh17



Category: The Middle
Genre: F/M, Incest, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 17:32:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1696601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackroxduh17/pseuds/Blackroxduh17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sue and Axl have to rearrange their rooms due to unforeseen circumstances. They end up sharing a wall, during which Sue discovers how much sex her brother really has. It’s not a pleasant experience for either of them. Well, not yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For the purposes of this story, season 5 has happened, except for all the college stuff. Somehow Axl is a senior in high school and Sue is a junior. This will be probably be a two-shot.

“Mom! Axl took the last pop tart!”

  
“I’m sorry, is your name written on it? No!”

  
Axl waved the pop tart in Sue’s face, yanking it away when Sue reached out to grab it. He snickered and walked back to the couch. Sue turned back to Frankie, who shrugged her shoulders.

  
“There are waffle sticks in the freezer, Sue.” Frankie said apologetically. Sue huffed and made her around Brick to get to the freezer. She pulled out the box from the freezer and proceeded to open it, muttering angrily to herself.

  
“Mike, don’t forget: after work you have to go to aunt Edie’s to driver her to the liquor store.” Frankie said while packing the kids’ lunches. Mike, who had been reading the newspaper, put it down and groaned.

  
“Why can’t you go? You know I hate taking her to the liquor store—she tries to engage in conversation!” Mike began to slump in his chair. Frankie rolled her eyes.

  
“I can’t go because I have to take Brick to the dentist. Also, you promised!” Frankie finished putting the last sandwich in the lunch bag and looked up at Mike.

  
“Fine.”

  
\--

  
Sue walked to the front door, dejectedly taking off her backpack. She walked to the kitchen, halfheartedly waving at Frankie who was at the microwave, obviously waiting for something to finish heating. Frankie looked at Sue for a second.

  
“What’s wrong, Sue?” Frankie questioned, opening the microwave door before the beeping had a chance to start.

  
“Axl totally dumped his milk on me in the cafeteria! Everybody laughed! And look, this is the nurse’s shirt! It’s not even my size!” Sue exclaimed, turning and leaning back on the fridge, giving Frankie the chance to see the hideous shirt she was wearing. It was large and hung down almost to her shins; three of Sue could fit comfortably in it. The shirt had a picture of a bear with an arrow through the body and said: “HAPPY BEAR SEASON!” Frankie grimaced and immediately started trying to do damage control.

  
“Well, I’m sure it was just an accident, right?” Frankie’s hope was unfortunately futile. Sue shook her head quickly, her hair flying around.

  
“No! I went up to him to remind him to wait for me and he stood up and dumped it on me! The whole cafeteria laughed! The lunch ladies laughed!”At this point, Sue was full on wailing. Frankie slammed her hand on the island counter.

  
“That is it, this time Axl has gone too far! When he gets home I’m going to ground him, ok?” Frankie was fuming. She had had enough of Axl’s attitude towards his sister. Sue was the nicest and most positive person in the house, why did Axl always have to pick on her?

  
“Thanks, mom. I’m going to go change out of this shirt—it’s giving me the creeps.”

  
\--

  
Frankie and Mike were sitting on the couch watching TV and waiting for Axl to get home so they could have a talk with him. Brick was in his shared room doing homework he left for the last minute and Sue was out in the backyard, watching the stars. Apparently she wanted to practice in the backyard before trying out for Star Club, whatever that was; Frankie and Mike hadn’t cared enough to ask her. It was after eight when Axl finally got home. Mike grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.

  
“Axl, come here.” Mike said with a stern voice. Axl stopped where he was and looked over at his parents.

  
“God! What did I do now?” He threw his head back in an exaggerated manner, walking back over to stand in front of the TV.

  
“I’ll tell you what you did. Does spilling milk all over Sue in the cafeteria ring a bell?” Frankie gestured angrily, raising her hands above her head. Axl groaned loudly.

  
“I was helping her! You think you would be happy that I helped her, you’re always telling me to help her and when I do, I get in trouble. I don’t get this!” Axl slouched, dropping his backpack in front of his feet. Frankie scoffed while Mike crossed his arms and glared at his idiotic son. Axl moved to walk past the couch, stopping only when Frankie reached out her hand and dragged him back to stand in front of the couch again.

  
“No, no, no, you’re not getting out of this one, Axl! Please, enlighten us. How exactly was dumping milk on your sister ‘helping her’?” Frankie gritted her teeth, staring down her son. Mike, who was pretty quiet next to her, let his eyes do the talking, or rather, the yelling. He narrowed his eyes even further. Axl shifted from one foot to the other and looked up at the ceiling.

  
“Well, see, she was coming up to talk to me, right, so I didn’t want anyone to see that she actually knew me, so I dumped the milk on her. It worked, because while everyone was laughing at her, I snuck away.” Axl gestured wildly with his arms, hoping if he waved them around enough, they could distract his parents and he would get out of this whole situation without getting punished.

  
“So, long and pointless story short, dumping milk on Sue was to save your own ass.” Mike grunted in flat tone. At this point, the Hecks weren’t mad anymore, they were just disappointed.

  
“Um, yes.” Axl smiled and finally walked past the couch, heading towards the kitchen where he opened the fridge and took out a soda. When he turned, he saw his parents had followed him into the kitchen. Frankie walked forward and yanked the can from his grasp.

  
“No, Axl! No soda, no ‘um, yes’, no nothing! I am tired of your attitude towards Sue. She is nothing but kind and supportive to you, no matter how horrible you are to her! And, honestly, Axl, you’re extremely horrible to her. But she just grins and bears it because she loves you and she seems to think that’s how you show affection towards her! And you know what? Even if it is how you show affection towards her, it’s not an appropriate way to show your love towards her, okay! Now, you are going to apologize your sister and do something to make it up to her, whatever it is that she wants, you do it. You got that?” Frankie took a deep breath after that big speech and deflated. Axl slammed his hands on the island counter and shook his head.

  
“Are you serious! Mom, that is so unfair!” Axl almost growled. Frankie and Mike began walking towards their room.

  
“Yes we are serious about this, Axl. And you’re grounded for a week. Want to make it two weeks, keep talking!” Mike thundered.

  
“Ugh!”

  
\--

  
“Hey, so, I’m sorry. We good?” Axl stuck his head in Sue’s room, looking at his dorky sister who was on her bed, flipping through a magazine. Sue looked up questioningly then rolled her eyes and looked back down at the magazine, flipping another page. Axl groaned and walked into her room.

“Come on, Sue, I said I was sorry, what more do you want?” Axl almost stomped his foot, but refrained. He had a little dignity left, even if he was in Sue’s room apologizing to her. Apologizing to Sue, who was currently ignoring him.

  
“Sue, come on, just say you forgive me and we can move on!” Axl pleaded—at this point, he wasn’t ashamed that he was begging because he was becoming more and more desperate. If Sue didn’t forgive him, Frankie would get even madder and Mike would probably invent some cruel and unusual punishment for him. That was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Sue sighed and looked up.

  
“Get out.”

  
“Not if you don’t accept my very sincere apology.”

  
“Hah! Sincere? Do you even know what that word means?” Sue muttered darkly, rolling off her bed and standing a couple of feet away from her brother.

  
“Do you even know what friend means? You’d think you would be desperate to accept my apology and make one!” Axl smirked at his clever comeback—for about two seconds before realizing what he said. Sue gasped and raised her hand to her mouth. Two splotches of red appeared on her cheeks and her eyes got curiously watery. She half-ran forward to Axl and began hitting him anywhere she could reach.

  
“You! Are! The! Biggest! Asshole! Ever!” Sue shrieked, pushing Axl out of her room. She slammed the door when he was out in the hallway. Axl gaped at the door for a few seconds before reaching up to rub his shoulder. Those slaps really hurt, okay! He walked to the kitchen and found the rest of his family in there. Mike and Frankie were frowning, Brick was gaping.

  
“What?” Axl grouched.

  
“Sue just cursed. Sue never curses! (Curses).” Brick said, breaking out of his stupor before his parents. Frankie nodded and turned to Axl.

  
“Brick’s right. I told you to apologize and do something nice for her, Axl. Not to anger her any further! What the hell did you say to her?” Frankie questioned.  
“Nothing! I literally just apologized and she freaked and totally didn’t accept it!” Axl complained, leaning his elbows on the island and propping up his head on his hands. Brick laughed and opened up his book, effectively tuning out the conversation.

  
“Wait, she didn’t accept your apology? Sue accepts everyone’s apologies! She once accepted an apology from someone who called her Becky throughout the whole apology!” Mike was stunned. Sue must be really mad about this whole situation.

  
“Well, she didn’t accept mine, okay! Oh well, mom, I’m ungrounded right?” Frankie laughed.

  
“Hah, no! If anything you’re twice as grounded for making your sweet sister curse at you.” Frankie snorted and picked up a dirty plate off the counter. She put it in the sink and turned around again.

  
“What! I apologized! How is it my fault if she didn’t accept it?” Axl was shaking his head and glaring at his mom.

  
“Because, knowing you, you probably gave her a half-assed apology and then insulted her.” Mike said and looked at Frankie for confirmation.

  
“Right. Honestly, Axl, it shouldn’t be so hard to apologize to your sister. Better yet, it shouldn’t be so hard to not dump milk on her in the first place.” Frankie could be snarky when she wanted to be and Axl was pushing every single one of her buttons.

  
“But what am I supposed to do to get her to accept my apology?” Axl asked miserably. His words were barely comprehensible because his head was pillowed on his arms.

  
“I don’t know maybe you could actually try to be nice to her and actually give her a genuine apology? This is your problem Axl, figure it out. Fast.” Frankie smiled and moved towards Mike, putting her arms around him. Axl groaned and muttered something into his arms.

  
\--

  
“Has anyone seen the nurse’s shirt? I have to give it back to her and I have to leave in five minutes if I want to catch the bus.” Sue whirled into the kitchen, frantically looking around and moving things around. Brick shook his head and went back to stuffing papers into his backpack. Frankie was hurriedly making sandwiches while Mike twirled around her, looking for a mug to pour his coffee into. Sue didn’t care where Axl was. She didn’t.

  
“You’re taking the bus?” Frankie asked, licking some peanut butter that was on her thumb. Sue hurriedly walked to the laundry room.

  
“No. I do not want to ride with that jerk.” Sue yelled and could be heard rummaging around in the laundry room. Frankie winced at the mess she was probably making in there.

  
“Do you hear that, Mike? Sue would rather take the bus than ride with Axl. She is really angry at him, and you know what, she has a right to be angry. This is years and years and years of his abuse towards her just exploding out of her.” Frankie was pointing the knife at Mike, nodding her head sort of crazily.

  
“Honestly, I’m surprised she’s lasted this long without some kind of meltdown. If Axl treated me how he treats her every day, I would’ve gone crazy a long time ago.” Brick said and zipped up his backpack, walking towards the front door.

  
“I’ll be in the car!” He yelled to his parents. Frankie turned back to Mike.

  
“Do you hear that? Our son who lets people bully him because he ‘doesn’t have the energy to fight back’ would’ve ‘gone crazy’ a while ago from the abuse gets from Axl. We should’ve done something about this a long time ago, Mike. We let this happen.” Frankie looked close to tears.

  
“AHA!” Sue shouted from the laundry room. She dashed out of the laundry room with the shirt held in her hand. She stuffed it in her bag, waving at her parents before running to the front door. The door slammed behind her and Frankie once again turned to an exasperated Mike.

  
“Ok, calm down, Axl is going to fix this. Soon they’ll be back to arguing with each other like normal.” Mike placated. Frankie sighed and looked at him carefully.

  
“You better be right. Oh, crap, she forgot her lunch!” Frankie grabbed the paper bag and ran outside to try and catch Sue before she got on the bus. Mike sighed and leaned on the counter, crossing his arms and waiting for Axl to emerge from his room. He didn’t disappoint. A couple of minutes later he half-ran into the kitchen, a shirt halfway on. He barely looked at his dad.

  
“Sue! If you’re not out in the car in the next two minutes, I’m leaving without you!” He shouted, unaware that Sue had already left the house.

  
“She left already, Axl.” Mike sighed. It seemed that lately, he had been doing a lot of sighing. Axl stopped in his tracks and looked at Mike.

  
“What do you mean she left?” He asked.

  
“I mean, your sister is so angry with you that she would rather take the bus than be with you in a car for fifteen minutes. That’s what I mean. Do you see the problem here Axl?” Mike asked in a dangerously quiet voice. Axl almost gulped and crossed his arms.

  
“No?”

  
“The problem is that you still haven’t made up with your sister. We told you to apologize and you haven’t. Do you see why this is happening? Sue is fed up with how you treat her. The milk incident was the last straw for her. You’d better make things right or by the time I’m done with you, you’re going to wish you lived with aunt Edie. Am I making myself clear?” Mike pushed off the counter and stood at his full height. Axl looked up at him.

  
“Crystal.”

  
\--

  
It was fourth period and Axl was desperately trying to find Sue. He was extremely annoyed. How come when he wanted to avoid her, she was everywhere? The one day when he needed to talk to her—she was nowhere to be found. She had lunch this period, they both did, but she didn’t show up in the cafeteria. Not that he was surprised after what happened yesterday. Truth be told, he felt bad the second he did it. It was an overreaction on his part, but she didn’t have to go blabbing about it to mom and dad. Now he was in more trouble than he could comprehend and everything was riding on Sue. A Sue who was nowhere to be found. He doubled back and headed towards the cafeteria. Upon entering, he bumped into a leggy blonde who smiled at him. He almost turned around before remembering he was looking for someone. His eyes roamed the cafeteria before honing in on a specific table. Bingo. Axl walked past his own table, nodding at his friends, but continued walking. He walked up to the table and leaned on it with his hands, startling the nerds that were sitting there.

“Carly, Brad, could either of you tell where I can find Sue?” He asked politely. Maybe being polite would get him the answers he wanted. Carly quaked in her shoes and her eyes darted around the table. Brad continued drinking his milk.

  
“Um, no, Axl. I have no idea where she is.” Carly was so fucking obvious it was just plain sad.

  
“Really, because I think you do. Tell me where she is and things won’t get ugly, Carly.” Axl smirked and stared at Carly who was visibly frightened. Brad almost choked on his milk.

  
“Ok, ok! She’s in the guidance counselor’s office in the basement.” Carly held up her hands in the national “it wasn’t me” pose. Axl nodded, satisfied.

  
“Thank you for your cooperation.”

  
\--

  
The walk down to the basement was pretty creepy. Why Sue regularly ventured down here was beyond him. He looked around and saw the office labeled ‘Guidance’. He walked up to it and saw Sue through the small window on the door. She was just in there sitting in the chair, a sandwich in front of her and obviously having an interesting conversation, given how often she was waving her hands around. Axl debated for a couple of seconds before ultimately choosing to just walk in. He grasped the door handle in his hand and pushed it open, walking into the small room. Sue turned around and gasped then narrowed her eyes.

  
“Axl! What are you doing here? This is a private conversation, get out!” Sue stomped her feet. Behind her, the guidance counselor visibly perked up.

  
“This is Axl? Your brother? The bane of your existence?” She inquired, smiling up at Axl as if she were meeting a celebrity. He smiled at her awkwardly before looking back to Sue.

  
“Sue, come on, I gotta talk to you.” He impatiently grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Sue struggled against him.

  
“What are you doing, Axl, let go of me.” Sue pulled her arm out of his grasp and pushed him into the drawer behind him.

  
“What’d you do that for? I’m trying to apologize to you maybe if you stop being such a bitch and accept it, this could all be avoided!” Axl was at the end of his rope. He had been trying to apologize since last night and Sue was just being a drama queen about the whole situation. Why his parents couldn’t see right through her, he had no idea.

  
“Did you seriously just call me that? Because I have accepted your indifferent apologies? No wait, scratch that, your indifferent apology, because this is not an apology, Axl, this is you ordering me around!” Sue was red in the face and she looked really angry. Come to think of it, Axl had never seen Sue this angry before. He was sort of scared.

  
“Well, I’m sorry, there, is that what you wanna hear? I’m sorry for dumping milk on you in front of everybody. I’m sorry, are we okay now?” Axl shouted right back at his sister, completely disregarding how inappropriate this entire situation was.

  
“No, we are not okay. We will not be okay. You’re mean to me and I’m done being a doormat. I’m not letting you walk all over me anymore, okay. I’m tired of you and I’m tired of your attitude and I’m tired of you pretending that you don’t know me and I’m tired of you _INSULTING ME AT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET, AXL. WE’RE DONE, OKAY._ ” Sue looked like a tomato from how red she was. A leaky tomato. She was crying at this point, almost sobbing. She grabbed her bag off the floor and pushed past Axl, wiping her face as she went. He turned and feebly reached out a hand.

  
“… Sue…” Okay, he was drowning in guilt right now. He turned and gave a fake smile to the guidance counselor.

  
“Um, sorry for the scene.” He apologized and turned to walk out the door, intent on giving chase to Sue. He stopped when the counselor spoke up.

  
“She’s really sad.” She said and Axl almost scoffed at the blatant statement.

  
“Um, yeah, I noticed.” He offered as politely as he could. She laughed and leaned forward on her elbows. She motioned for him to sit. Surprisingly, he did.

  
“What I mean is that she’s really upset about how you treat her.” The guidance counselor, wow he should really ask her for her name, looked imploringly at him.

  
“I’ve done far worse than this to her. I just don’t get why she’s making such a big deal out of this one thing.” Axl ran his hand through his hair and leaned back in the chair. The counselor (Seriously!) smiled at him. She leaned back in her chair, too.

  
“Did you ever think that maybe all those things you’ve done and she’s ignored have all piled up on her and dumping milk on her yesterday was her breaking point? Not to mention you waltzing in here and grabbing her like a Neanderthal when she was in the middle of a private conversation.” She said and pulled out a paper from a drawer.

  
“Yeah, but why this one thing? I’ve done far worse to her before.”

  
“It’s not this ‘one’ thing. It’s the final thing. Let me put this in a way you can understand. Did you ever see that episode of Drake and Josh when Josh declared that he was no longer speaking to Drake? This is like that.” She smirked and looked down at the paper. Axl sat there, flummoxed. The guidance counselor’s words ran through his head while he sat there with his mouth open. The guidance counselor looked up, surprised he was still there. She smiled gently when she saw his state.

  
“You may go.”

  
He went.

  
\--

  
After school, he didn’t even go to practice. That’s how out of it he was. He got into his car and drove straight home, not bothering to wait for Sue. He doubted she was going to drive with him, anyway. He pulled up to the house, grabbing his bag and getting out. Walking up to the front door was a hassle.

  
“What’re you doing here, Axl? Was practice canceled?” Oh great, just his luck. Frankie was home. Which meant Brick was home. This meant he wouldn’t be allowed to sulk in his room in peace.

  
“Axl?” Axl startled before remembering that Frankie had asked him a question. He dropped his bag at his feet.

  
“No, it got canceled. I’m gonna go to my room. See ya.” He said casually ignoring his mom’s stare and walking to his room.

  
\--

  
At dinner she wouldn’t even look at him. Frankie was once again trying some Oprah shit and was asking everyone about their day. She finally turned to Sue. Axl winced, expecting an outburst.

  
“So, Sue, how was your day?” She asked, passing French fries to Brick. Axl slunk down in his chair. Sue raised her eyes and looked at Frankie.

  
“Nothing special today, mom.” She smiled and went back to eating her burger. Axl sat up and gaped at his sister. He didn’t respond when Frankie called his name.

  
\--

  
It was past two in the morning and he couldn’t sleep. He was so angry that this situation was affecting him this strongly. Why was he letting his dork sister’s silence affect him like this? Axl groaned softly and sat up in his bed. He swung his legs over the side and got up to walk to the bathroom. He was rubbing his eyes when he noticed the light was on in Sue’s room. He didn’t hesitate before opening the door. Sue gasped and turned around, looking like she was about to have a heart attack. Axl shut the door behind him.

  
“Axl! What are you doing! Get out right now!” Sue whispered furiously before turning back to—holy god.

  
“You have a hole in your wall again? How the fuck did you manage to create a hole in your wall a _third time_?” Axl asked incredulously. He walked forward and carefully looked at the damage.

  
“It was an accident, okay! I was practicing a cartwheel and I may have fallen into the wall—anyway what the hell are you still doing in here, I thought I told you to get out!” She grumbled and went back to trying to cover up the hole with a thin quilt. It obviously wasn’t working.

  
“That’s obviously not working.” Axl pointed out. Sue turned around and glared at him.

  
“I know it isn’t working, don’t you think I know that it isn’t working? Get out and leave me alone, I’m angry with you.” Sue dismissed him a third time and turned back to the wall. Axl sighed and walked forward. He stood next to Sue while they both looked at the wall. It was silent for a couple of seconds.

  
“Sue, I’m really sorry for dumping milk on you in the cafeteria. It was a mistake and an overreaction and I’m so sorry. Please stop ignoring me.” Axl didn’t look at Sue, instead choosing to stare at the big hole in the wall. Sue shifted next to him.

  
“It’s okay, Axl. I shouldn’t have gone up to you in the cafeteria; I know you had rules about that.” Sue didn’t look at him either, making this sweet moment easier for the both of them.

  
“Still. It was an overreaction.” Axl sighed and rubbed his nose. Sue turned to him suddenly.

  
“Consider everything forgotten if you help me cover this up so mom and dad never find this hole until after I leave for college.” Sue pleaded. Axl smirked and looked down at her.

  
“I’m sure we can figure something out.”

  
\--

  
“Ow, ow, ow, Axl, stop, go slowly.” Sue was buckling underneath the weight and red in the face from exertion.

  
“Oh come on, hurry up and let’s finish before mom and dad wake up.” Axl responded easing up a little. Sue shifted and groaned.

  
“This is not easy for me. Ease up. Okay, move to the left.” Axl moved left.

  
“No, not your left, my left.” Sue whispered, glaring at Axl. Axl glared right back and moved the other way.

  
“Okay, perfect. Now, set it down, gently!” Sue admonished when it looked like Axl was just going to drop right where he was. Together they put down the bed and pushed it into the wall. Thankfully, the headboard completely covered the hole in the wall and it didn’t look too out of place where it was.

  
“There, it’s covered. Mom and dad will never see the hole. Ok, it’s three in the morning and we have to be up in about four hours, good night.” Axl moved to the door. Sue reached out and grabbed his hand.

  
“Wait! We have to set up the room so it looks normal. You know, move the dresser around and stuff.” Sue was making puppy dog eyes at him.

  
“Fine.”

  
\--

  
An hour later, the room looked great. The dresser was in the corner, the hole was covered, and Sue wasn’t in trouble. She sighed and looked over at Axl, who was nodding off in her bed. She moved and tapped him on the forehead. He jolted awake.

  
“Hey, I’m done. You can go now.” She smiled and pulled him up by the hand. He surged forward and knocked into her, almost bowling over. Sue grabbed hold and shook him.

  
“What, stop.” He mumbled into her shoulder.

  
“Axl, come on, you have to get to bed. And stop making so much noise, you’re gonna wake up mom and dad!” Sue reprimanded. Axl sluggishly stood tall and walked to the door.

  
“This was fun, let’s do it again.” He smiled and walked out.

  
Sue laughed.

  
\--

  
The next morning, both Sue and Axl looked like death. They were eating cereal lethargically, Axl almost faceplanted into his bowl. Frankie took one look at them and sighed.

  
“What is wrong with you two? Hurry up and eat! Sue, you’re going to miss the bus if you don’t walk out right now.” Frankie alleged. Sue smiled whimsically at her.

  
“That’s okay, mom. Sue’s riding with me.” Axl grabbed his bag and pulled up his sister, grabbing her bag as well. Both were out of the door in a few seconds. Frankie turned to Mike, who had just walked into the kitchen.

  
“Did you see that, Mike? They made up! He’s driving her to school! Oh, they’re maturing! I wonder when they made up. Sue went to bed angry.” Frankie wondered and listlessly put the bowls into the sink. Mike looked around and twisted to face Frankie.

  
“Where’s Brick?” Frankie lost the smile and adopted a wide-eyed gaze.

  
“Oh, God, Brick!” She ran into the hallway, banging on the door, and tripping over sneakers that were right in front of the door. She squealed and landed in an ungraceful heap across the floor. Brick lurched out of bed, gasping.

  
“What is it? What’s wrong?” He asked, looking around frantically. Frankie looked up from her heap on the floor.

  
“What’s wrong is the mess in this room. This is getting cleaned up when we get home tonight, damn it.”

  
\--

  
“No, don’t go to the kitchen. Come and sit on the couch.” Frankie said right before Axl had a chance to go to the kitchen and pig out. He looked at the kitchen longingly before going to sit on the couch.

  
“What did I do now?” He groaned into the arm of the couch. Brick was already sitting next to him, reading a book. Surprise, surprise. Frankie looked at her sons and internally sighed.

  
“Today, Axl, I went into your room to wake up Brick and do you know what happened?” Axl shook his head, rolling his eyes.“Well, I went in there and tripped and fell. Do you know what that tells me?”

  
“Maybe you should look at the floor when you’re walking?” Axl smiled cheekily and elicited a short laugh from Brick. They high fived.

  
“No, Axl, it tells me that the mess in your room is out of control. We are going to pick everything up and completely rearrange everything.” Axl shot up off the couch and groaned so loud it seemed the house shook with the force of it.

  
“God, mom, if it bothers you so much I’ll just close the door!” Axl was so annoyed, God, it seemed that lately all his mom had been doing was nagging him and grounding him.

  
“No, we are going to pick it up and you’re going to clean it up and keep it clean. You know what, if you clean your room, you can be officially ungrounded. How does that sound?”

  
“It sounds like we should get a move on.”

  
\--

  
A couple of hours later and the room was spotless. Axl’s bed was now in the far right of the room, where Brick’s bed used to be. The headboard was leaning on the wall and it actually looked nice there. Frankie had decided that the bed shouldn’t be across from the door, that way, if Axl didn’t make his bed, nobody would be the wiser. Brick’s bed was on the far left, where Axl’s bed used to be, but it was pushed all the way to the wall. This created a lot more space in the middle of the room, making it seem bigger than it actually was.

  
“I can’t believe this has taken so long. I can’t believe we’re still working.” Axl groaned and flopped on his bed, rolling over to lie on his belly. Frankie grabbed the last box of garbage and smiled at Axl.

  
“Well, we’re finished now. Come to the kitchen, I’ll cook up something.” She dragged the box behind her and walked out of the room. Axl pushed off the bed, enticed by food. Brick turned around and walked ahead of Axl and out the door. Axl stopped for a second a looked around the room. It actually looked nice and it looked to be more spacious than it actually was.

  
\--

  
Later that night, the three home decorators were sitting in front of the TV gorging themselves on cheap chips from the Frugal Hoosier. It was only when The Bachelor ended that they looked around and realized that Mike and Sue were nowhere to be seen. Brick spoke up first.

  
“Hey, where’s dad? I told him to bring me a book from the bookstore. It’s supposed to be a prequel to the Planet Nowhere series and it’s about the—“, Brick was rudely interrupted when Axl threw a chip at his face, hitting him square on the forehead.

  
“Nobody cares about your dumb Planet Dorktron books, Brick, I told dad to bring me tacos from the taco place near the Chinese place and everyone knows that if you don’t get them before 10 then they give you tacos with the days’ leftovers. I eat enough leftover food in this house, thank you very much.” Axl motioned to the chips with a look of pure revulsion. Frankie sighed and took a moment to roll her eyes.

  
“Neither of you have even noticed that Sue is not home yet. Where could they be… you know what, let me call Mike.” Frankie got off the couch, stepped over Axl’s outstretched legs and walked into the kitchen. Her phone was lying on top of the kitchen counter and she walked over to it, almost tripping over a shoe. She sighed.

  
“Tomorrow we’re cleaning the kitchen!” She yelled out, reveling in the answering groans she received. She picked up her phone and dialed Mike’s number. She leaned against and put the phone up to her ear. It rung a couple of times and just when she was about to hang up, Mike picked up.

  
“ _Hello_?” He asked as if he didn’t have caller ID and didn’t know who was calling.

  
“Mike? Where are you? It’s almost 11!” Frankie exclaimed.

  
“ _I got held up. I accidentally asked Dave how his day was and got strung into doing some romantic gesture for his girlfriend. So he threw rocks at her window and he had me hold out sparklers. She thought it was really cute but then he sort of set fire to her bush and, well yeah, it didn’t turn out too well. Anyway we’re on our way home now. I’m just a block away._ ” Mike sighed into the phone and a distant honk could be heard. Frankie took a moment to process that information and actually pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it for a moment.

  
“Okay, see you when you get home.” Frankie responded to the latter part of what Mike had told her because honestly, what the hell was she supposed to say to the former. Honestly.

  
\--

  
“Hey, did you remember to record the game?” Mike asked Axl as soon as he walked in the house. Axl looked up and nodded then stood up and stalked forward towards his dad.

  
“What, dad, where’re my tacos!” He grabbed at his hair and then at his stomach.

  
“Sorry, Axl, I was busy dealing with the fire department to worry about getting you your damn tacos.” Mike almost growled. Axl grumbled and stalked back to the couch, plopping on it, disturbing Brick who glowered at his older brother. Frankie walked in with a smile on her face.

  
“Ok, c’mon, you have to tell me the whole train wreck. Where’s Sue?” Frankie asked as an afterthought. Mike, who was gearing up for his tirade, paused and looked at Frankie.

  
“I don’t know, you’re the one who’s been home. What’re you asking me for?” He asked and Frankie did a double take.

  
“What do you mean you don’t know where she is? You said ‘we’re on our way home’ when we were on the phone, Mike!” Frankie struck her arms out in sort of a pleading pose. Mike looked down at her.

  
“Yeah, as in Doug and I are on our way home!” Mike told Frankie and hung up his jacket. As if on cue Dave walked through the front door and waved at Frankie.

  
“Hi, Frankie, I hope you don’t mind I’m staying here tonight. It’s just my girlfriend wouldn’t let me in after I almost burned her house down, you know?” Dave grinned and shrugged his shoulders. Frankie smiled hurriedly and turned to find her phone. She turned towards the boys on the couch.

  
“Axl, get your phone and call your sister.” Axl looked up and grabbed his phone immediately when he saw the look on Frankie’s face. After a couple of seconds he spoke into the phone.

  
“Sue, where the hell are you?” When Frankie heard him speak, she walked into the living room to better listen.

  
“What? Still? Well, why didn’t you call? Ok, ok, I’m going to pick you up, ok? Just hold on.” Axl got up and grabbed his car keys off the table. Frankie stepped in his way.

  
“Well, where is she?” Frankie asked him. Axl shot her a look.

  
“You were supposed to pick her up from field hockey tryouts. I’ll be right back; I’m gonna go pick her up.” Axl skirted around Frankie and shut the door to the sound of Frankie berating herself.

  
“ _God, I totally forgot, how could I for—_ “

  
\--

  
“Axl! Oh my god, thank goodness you’re here, that hobo was getting awfully close to where I was. And he peed! In front of me! I saw something disgusting _I shouldn’t have seen_!” Sue was almost hyperventilating by the time she got into the car. Axl gave a short laugh and turned towards Sue, his eyes roaming her body for a second.

  
“You’re okay?” He asked. Sue took a breath and smiled at him.

  
“Yeah, now that you’re here.”

  
\--

  
“ _Mom_!” Sue screamed from the doorway. Four people looked up from the TV. Axl walked in right behind Sue and stood behind her for a second before walking to his room. Frankie began to do damage control.

  
“Now, Sue, I’m sorry, but honey, did you really tell me—“

  
“Yes, yes I did. I know because you said ‘wow I have to pick you up that late, practice runs that late. Strange.’ I saw a penis, mom, a dirty hobo penis!” Sue’s voice was unnaturally high-pitched.

  
“ _You saw a what_?” Mike cried in a dismayed voice.

  
Dave giggled.

  
\--

  
It was 4am in Orson, Indiana. Axl was twisting and turning in his bed and he was angry. Helping Sue the night before until ass o’clock had obviously messed up his sleeping schedule. He sighed and disentangled himself from his covers. He walked barefoot and opened up the door, actually stopping when (once again) he saw the light on in Sue’s room. He wondered if he should walk in again. Last time it didn’t work out too well, he was forced to work. Axl didn’t know who he was kidding, he knew was going in. He walked forward and grabbed the knob, turning and walking in.

  
Sue was lying across the bed, a pillow thrown haphazardly across her face. She was wearing one of Mike’s shirts, which went down to about her knee. She quickly sat up when she heard the door open, her pillow falling into her lap, covering her legs. She leaned back when she saw it was just Axl. Axl grinned, giddy of all a sudden. He walked forward and sat down on her bed, on her legs. Sue squirmed and glared at Axl.

  
“You’re on my legs.” She stated. Axl nodded.

  
“Well, look at that. Seems I am.” He sat on her legs for a few more seconds before leaning on his hands so she could pull her legs out from under him. He was expecting her to sit up, so he was a little surprised when she threw her legs over his lap. He wrapped one of his hands around her ankle.

  
“What’re you doing up? No, wait, better yet, why are you in here?” Sue grumbled.

  
“You’re very cranky in the early hours of the day.” Axl noted. Sue lifted her head and glared at him.

  
“Well, excuse the fact that I’m not my usual sunny self, it’s not like I’ve been trying to sleep for the past 5 hours to no avail.” She mumbled sarcastically and dropped her head back down on the bed. Axl fell back on the bed and looked at Sue from the awkward angle.

  
“Why can’t you sleep?” He asked.

  
“Every time I close my eyes, I see that hideous… thing that the hobo pulled out of his pants.” Axl almost choked from the laughter that bubbled up. Sue sat up and hit him in the side with her fist.

  
“You’re ridiculous, Sue. It’s a penis; every guy has one in his pants. Get over it.” Axl sat up and turned so he was facing her directly. They were sat similarly, both had their legs pulled under them, Indian style. Sue was making her patented Shocked Sue face.

  
“I know that guys have… little guys I just—“

  
“Okay, Sue, if you ever want to have sex, don’t call a guy’s junk ‘little’” Axl snorted and leaned his head on his hand.

  
“Axl! Stop talking about that!” Sue whisper-yelled. Axl rolled his eyes and sighed.

  
“About what, Sue? Sex? Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex.sex—“ He was cut off when Sue pinched him. He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his skin.

  
“Shut up, okay!” Sue had high spots of color on her cheeks and was laughing. Axl grinned and snorted in despair.

  
“Sue, come on. You’re a junior in high school. Surely you’ve talked about… the ‘S’ word.” Axl smirked when Sue looked away from him. She looked at the door of her room for a while before turning back to face him with a steely expression of determination.

  
“Penis.” She murmured. Axl leaned back and let out a loud bark of laughter before remembering he was supposed to be quiet, lest he wake his parents up.

  
“Vagina.” Axl whispered back. Sue laughed quietly and scratched at her head. She was quiet for a moment before shaking her head and standing up, putting pressure on Axl’s leg to push herself up.

  
“Ok, that’s enough of that for tonight. Get out.” Sue said, her hands on her hips, pushing up her shirt a little. Axl frowned and looked at her.

  
“Aw, come on, Sue-nami, we were just having fun. You know what that is, right?” He leaned back onto his hands and grinned up at Sue.

  
“I do know what that is, Axl. I also know what sleep is and I know that I would like to get some. Get out.” She leaned forward, grabbing one of Axl’s hands and pulling him up—and into her. She stumbled back a little before pushing him away from her. Axl rolled his eyes.

  
“Fine, Sally-no-fun. See you tomorrow—well, in a couple of hours, actually.” Axl skirted around Sue and opened her door, closing it behind him. He went to the bathroom and did his business.

  
He was smiling to himself.

  
\--

  
It was a Thursday night when news broke of Brick’s spelling bee. The Hecks couldn’t believe it; he had actually won and was going to National’s. This time there was no whispering or dumb brothers trying to make money off a spelling bee. Brick had actually won, it was a miracle.

  
“Yeah, tomorrow we have to leave early to make it to Washington by around three in the afternoon. We have to leave by six, so everybody pack up now and go to sleep early so we can leave on time. This is crucial we have to leave on time, people.” Mike stressed to the rest of his family, knowing that it was futile regardless. He rolled his eyes, knowing that they wouldn’t get on the road until about seven, if that.

  
“Tomorrow? Oh, Mike, why couldn’t you tell me this earlier, now I have to call in sick on the day of! Do you know how irresponsible that’s going to make me seem?” Frankie was complaining as she stuffed her mouth full of her favorite salty fries. Mike snorted and looked up at her, smiling.

  
“Not like you care, right?” He asked, smirking. Frankie grinned and shook her head.

  
“Uh, I don’t know if you guys know this, but tomorrow I have a huge US History test that I cannot miss.” Axl alleged before going on to slurp his soda. Frankie looked up at him in alarm.

  
“Huge test? I haven’t even seen you studying, Axl! If you had a big test why haven’t you been studying?” Frankie despaired, glaring at her hopeless son.

  
“How do you know I haven’t been studying?” Axl sassed.

  
“Because, Axl, every time I even glance your way you’re either watching TV or just lounging around doing nothing. I would remember seeing you with books out because I would’ve fallen over in shock.” Frankie murmured, more to herself than to Axl.

  
“I know what I’m doing, God, mom, why are you always on my case?” He groaned and threw his head back.

  
“Well, you wouldn’t really get anything done if she wasn’t constantly telling you to do things.” Brick replied before grabbing a bite of his burger and going back to his book, seemingly finished with the conversation.

  
“Ok, well, is there any way we can leave after school, Mike?” Frankie turned to her husband, who shook his head vehemently.

  
“No, we need to be there by six because that’s when you have to check in. How about you two stay behind and just drive up after school?” Mike’s eyebrows were furrowed as he tried to think of a solution to the newfound problem.

  
“That sounds good. And we can even take turns driving; won’t that be fun, Axl?” Frankie was excited. It seemed that the whole issue was resolved. Mike would drive up first with Brick and Sue, while later Frankie and Axl would follow after both school and work, respectively. The Hecks were eating peacefully—well as peacefully as was possible in the Heck family.

  
“How long are we going to be there anyway?” Frankie asked around a mouthful of fries.

  
“I don’t know, actually. Hold on, let me see the information sheet.” Mike got up from the table and went to the laundry room, rifling around the computer area. Frankie watched him with little interest before turning back to the table.

  
“So, Brick, are you excited?” She inquired, pushing away the plate and bringing the soda closer to her. Brick held up a finger, trying to finish the paragraph before answering Frankie. Frankie rolled her eyes and waited. Next to Brick, Axl had taken to throwing fries at Sue’s face.

  
“Axl! Cut it out!” She shrieked trying to stop the onslaught of fries at her person. Axl grinned and continued chucking them at her.

  
“Eat fries, Sue-face!” He yelled maniacally while continuing to assault Sue with fries.

  
“Axl! If you’re not going to eat your fries, give them to me. Otherwise, stop throwing them.” Frankie stared at Axl until he put the fry in his hand into his mouth. Brick looked up.

  
“I’m excited. I heard they have a new exhibit at the National Air and Space museum. I’m also excited to see the Washington monument and the statue of Abraham Lincoln.” Brick nodded thoughtfully to himself and smiled up at Frankie, who frowned back.

  
“No, Brick, I meant for the Spelling Bee. You do realize that that’s what we’re going there for, right?” She asked carefully.

  
“Oh. Well, sure.” Brick shrugged and went back to reading his book. Frankie sighed and came to terms with the fact that this would be one huge disappointment for Mike. Coincidentally, at this precise moment, Mike returned to the table with a single sheet of paper in his hand. He looked down at it and squinted.

  
“Ok, so tomorrow at six is the check in. Then we can do whatever we want in the hotel. Saturday at six is this; well they call it a “Bee Mix-up”. I guess it’s some type of party for the kids and the families. The actual spelling bee starts at six on Sunday, and they go until there’s only 20 kids left. Monday at six is the last part of the spelling bee, where the winner is declared. Tuesday at six is a big formal dinner with the vice president, and the winner is the special guest of honor. Oh wow, it’s supposed to end pretty late. I guess we won’t leave until Wednesday, then.” Mike mumbled to himself. The rest of the family, save Brick, was looking at him in shock. Then they began speaking at once.

  
“Mike, that’s five days! I can’t call in sick for five—“

  
“No, wait, I have a huge test on Tuesday and I have Wrestlerettes on Tuesday I—“

  
“Dad, what the hell, I have practice the whole next week, I can’t miss—“

  
“Alright, alright, everybody shut _up_!” Mike yelled and miraculously, the table quieted down.

  
“Frankie, you don’t have to call in sick, just take your vacation days.” He told Frankie matter-of-factly. “I mean, it’s not like you’re going to use them to go on an actual vacation.” He finished and laughed when Frankie shot him a put out look.

  
“You’re right. I should let Dr. Goodwin know right now.” Frankie got up from the table and went to go find her phone.

  
“Ok, that’s great and all dad, but what about my practice. I really can’t miss pratice.” Axl declared in a pompous tone.

  
“Yeah, and I can’t miss my test. Or Wrestlerettes.” Sue anxiously stated. Mike sighed and looked down at the paper before looking back up, a set look on his face.

  
“Well, you two are going to have to stay here by yourselves, then.” He hesitantly said and rolled his eyes when their faces lit up.

  
“Alone? Are you serious? Oh, yeah, party!” Axl pumped his fist in the air before shaking his head to some imaginary beat. Frankie returned to the table and smiled at her son.

  
“What’re we celebrating?” She asked Axl, but was answered by Sue instead.

  
“Dad said we’re gonna stay here while you guys go off to Washington.” Frankie almost hacked out a lung from her laughter.

  
“Mike, are you serious? No, we are not leaving them alone for five days, are you crazy?” She was afraid old age was not doing good for Mike’s brain.

  
“C’mon, Frankie. Axl is a senior and Sue is a junior in high school. I’m sure we can trust them to stay alone and not get into any trouble for a couple of days.”

  
“No! No, we cannot, Mike! This is _Axl and Sue that we’re talking about here._ ” Frankie was working herself up to a hysterical state. Mike sank down in his seat and groaned into his hands.

  
“Ok, well, this doesn’t concern me at all. I’m going to my room.” Brick got up and left the table, grabbing his book and walking off in the direction of his and Axl’s shared room. The table barely spared him half a glance.

  
“Ok, the only other thing would be if only Brick and I went to Washington. You could stay here with the Axl and Sue.” Mike was trying to be as reasonable and diplomatic as possible, but it was hard in the Heck household. So damn hard.

  
“But I already called Dr. Goodwin! I already took my days. Plus, I was really looking forward to not working for five days.” Frankie sighed.

  
“Then stay here and don’t go to work.” Mike sighed as well, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling.

  
“But, I don’t want to take vacation days if all I’m going to do is sit around the house.”

  
“Then take your vacation days and come with Brick and I.”

  
“But what about Sue and Axl? I mean—“

  
“You know what, you’re coming with me, ok? Axl and Sue are old enough and hopefully mature enough to handle staying by themselves for a couple of days. If you’re so worried, tell Nancy Donahue to check in with them every day to make sure they’re not throwing some wild party or that they haven’t killed each other, which if they did, at this point _I wouldn’t be too sad about it_!” Mike screeched back in his chair and stood up, stomping over to the couch. Frankie leaned back in her chair and blinked. Axl and Sue looked at each other and then back at Frankie.

  
“Wow, he’s so dramatic.” Sue spoke softly as if to make sure that Mike wouldn’t hear her, even though he was most definitely not paying her any attention. Axl hummed in agreement and made as if to get up. Frankie tugged on his arm and sat him down again.

  
“Ok, you’re staying her alone. I don’t want any funny business, you got me? No parties, no staying out late, no sleepovers, and certainly no fighting. I expect you two to be mature adults about this. And I will have Nancy Donahue checking in on you, so don’t even expect to be getting away with anything. If either of you do anything, anything that I did not give you permission to do, I will come right back and _kill you both_. Do you understand me?” Frankie muttered darkly to both her kids, looking at them both. They both nodded, stunned. Frankie smiled in a satisfied manner and got up from the table.

  
“Good.”

  
\--

  
“ _Brick, Brick! Get up, we have to leave in five minutes_ ,” Frankie screeched as she bounded into the boys’ room. Axl almost flopped out of his bed, but rolled and bumped into the wall instead. Frankie moved forward and shook Brick awake.

  
“What, what?” He mumble sleepily into his pillow. Axl groaned and hid his face under the comforter.

  
“Get up, we have to leave, we’re late!” Frankie dragged Brick out of bed and pushed him towards to the bathroom. “Just brush your teeth ok, no time for a shower or a change of clothes.” Frankie bounded out of the room and sprinted towards the kitchen in order to grab their suitcases and the snack bag—can’t forget the snack bag—and bring them to the car. She was still in her pajamas, but couldn’t really bring herself to care. Mike shot past her, also in his pajamas, and grabbed some most of the bags to take them to the car. He shot a frantic look at her.

  
“I’ll go turn on the car. Make sure we have everything and get Brick. We are leaving in two minutes.” He turned and ran towards the car, waddling funnily due to the amount of bags he was carrying. Frankie whirled around and darted to the bathroom door, not bothering to knock. She almost ripped her hair out when she found Brick sleeping on the toilet.

  
“Brick! Get up, get up, get up!” She hurried forward and flicked him on the forehead, startling him into consciousness. “Did you pee?”

  
“Yeah…”

  
“Did you brush your teeth?” Brick nodded. “Ok, great, pull up your pants and let’s go. Don’t forget your backpack full of books!” Brick got up, still moving too slowly for Frankie’s taste, and shuffled towards his room. He came out a second later with his backpack and began shuffling to the door. Frankie was in the kitchen, grabbing the snack bag and the last remaining bag to take to the car when Sue stumbled in, rubbing her eyes.

  
“You’re leaving already?” She asked, noticing her mother’s frantic state. Frankie nodded and began hauling the bags to the door.

  
“Ok, don’t go back to sleep, knowing you both you’ll just sleep through the entire day. Go wake up Axl, have breakfast, and get to school on time. Make sure you quiz him a little on the way there because he has that test today and I’m positive that he still hasn’t studied. Remember, be good, and Nancy Donahue will be checking in on you.” Sue was nodding along to Frankie’s words, a serious look on her face. The car horn blasted outside.

  
“Frankie, get in, or I’m leaving without you!” Mike shouted, leaning out of the window to make sure his voice carried. Behind him, Brick could be seen propped up against the window, already sleeping again. Frankie turned back to Sue and smiled reassuringly at her.

  
“Bye, Sue. Be good! And make sure Axl is good!”

  
Sue shut the door.

  
\--

  
“Axl, seriously, we’re gonna be late.” Sue was currently in Axl’s room talking to his comforter which he was buried underneath of. All she could see was a tuft of dark hair that shook a little when he moved.

  
“Go away.” It came out as a faint whisper from underneath the comforter and Sue rolled her eyes. If Axl didn’t get up right now, he wouldn’t have time to shower.

  
“Axl, come on.” Sue shook him again and sighed when all he did was burrow further into the comforter. Not even the little tuft of hair could be seen anymore. And then, Sue smiled. She took a few steps back and prepared herself, stretching, as if she was going to run a 5k. She bent a little and took a flying leap. Sue landed square on Axl’s body, knocking the breath out of him, if the gasping was anything to go by. He wriggled underneath her, like a warm, before his head came out. Sue smiled brightly at him. He glared.

“What the fuck are you doing!” He almost shouted, his voice was deep and raspy from sleep and his eyes were bloodshot.

  
“Getting you up! Seriously, you have to go shower and stuff so we can leave on time.” Sue slid off his bed and onto the floor. “I’m gonna go make us breakfast, you go shower. If I don’t hear the shower running in the next two minutes, I’m coming back here and pouring water all over you.” And with that, she flounced out of the room. Axl stared at her in shock.

  
“Fucking hell.”

  
\--

  
The bell rang and Axl walked out of his US History class. He thinks he did okay on it, Sue quizzing him in the car certainly helped, not that he would ever tell her that.

  
“Ax-man! What up! I heard your parents left you alone! Party time, am I right?” Sean and Darrin both walked up to him in the hallway, grinning like Cheshire cats. Axl smirked at them and shook his head.

  
“Nah, man, she’s got your mom checking in on us in case we do anything wrong. Promised to kill us if we did.” He snorted and began walking towards his locker, knowing that Sean and Darrin would follow.

  
“Oh, that sucks balls, man!” Darrin said in an indifferent tone, instead choosing to look around the hallway. They finally reached Axl’s locker where he stuck in his textbooks and pulled out the book his class was reading for English. He couldn’t be bothered to look at the cover; it was probably some Shakespeare shit. He turned and leaned on his locker to continue talking to his bros when someone caught his eye. He twisted his head to look at what it was, or rather, who it was. Stacey Connors, hottie extraordinaire was looking at him, twirling a strand of hair in her fingers. He shot her a smirk and pushed off his locker when she started walking towards him, her short skirt bouncing around her shapely legs. Sean and Darrin turned to see what had caught Axl’s attention, noticing Stacey walking their way.

  
“Dude, Stacey? What about Cassidy?” Sean asked, his brow furrowed. Axl rolled his eyes and looked at Sean.

  
“She broke up with me, remember? Plus, I think she’s back together with her college boyfriend, screw her.” Axl went around his friends, going to meet Stacey halfway.

  
“Hi, Axl,” Her sultry voice reached out. Axl grinned and leaned forward into her personal space.

  
“Stacey, what’s up?”

  
“Oh, nothing. Just saw you standing there and you looked really sexy. So I thought to myself: Hm, maybe I should I should go talk to him, so we can arrange something.” Stacey crossed her arms under her chest, making it pop out even more than it already was in her low cut shirt. Axl quickly looked up and into her eyes.

  
“And exactly what is it that you want to arrange on this fine Friday morning?” Axl questioned, already having an inkling as to what Stacey wanted. She grinned and leaned into him even more, they were practically breathing each other’s air at this point.

  
“Well, I was planning to arrange something that would require us to be horizontal, what do you think about that?” She practically purred. Axl almost gulped and his eyes narrowed.

  
“I think that’s a fine idea. How about after school you come over to my place. I have an empty house and a lot of places where we can get horizontal.” Axl leaned until his nose bumped into hers. She sighed and leaned more, brushing her lips against his, briefly and softly.

  
“See you then.”

  
\--

  
“Hey, Brad, where’s Sue?” Axl practically ran into Brad in his haste to catch him before he went into his class. Brad, surprised, took a step back.

  
“I haven’t seen her since lunch, why?” Brad responded in a decidedly less rushed way than Axl.

  
“I need you to tell her that I can’t drive her home after school, ok?”

  
“Oh, well, either way she was gonna take the late bus, I think she has a meeting after school.” Brad shrugged his shoulders and looked into his classroom to make sure the teacher wasn’t taking attendance yet.

  
“Oh, really? Ok, that’s great. Later!” Axl punched Brad lightly on the shoulder and ran off, probably to his class that he was already late for. Brad was about to go in to his class before he was marked as late, but then he saw Sue at the end of the hallway that Axl had come from and she was in no hurry. He shot one last look at his classroom before hurrying to Sue.

  
“Sue!” He shouted before she could turn the corner. Sue stopped walking and turned, noticing him for the first time. She began walking towards him, a curious look on her face.

  
“Hey, Brad, don’t you have class now?” She asked when they finally reached each other.

  
“Yeah, don’t you? Where are you going?” Brad countered. Sue rolled her eyes.

  
“My mom called me. She wants me to go home because there’s a package being delivered to the house and she can’t get in touch with Nancy Donahue.” Sue flicked her hair past her shoulder and grinned at Brad.

  
“Why didn’t she just tell Axl? He’s the one with the car.”

  
“He has English later. The idiot really can’t afford to miss that class. He’s this close to failing.” Sue held her index and thumb up, showing a little distance between them. Brad laughed out loud and half-turned to walk to his classroom.

  
“Oh, wait, I was actually just talking to him. He said that he can’t drive you home after school, not that it matters now, right?” Brad asked rhetorically, walking backwards towards his classroom.

  
“Yeah, it’s fine. Weird Ashley’s mom is giving me a ride to the house. I’ll just see him when he gets home.” Sue and Brad waved to each other, Brad hurrying to his class, Sue to the office.  
\--  
“Thank you, have a nice day!” Sue smiled brightly at the mail guy and closed the door. She hauled the package to the kitchen and set it on the counter for when her parents got back. She yawned and went to the cabinet, taking out a bag of chips before opening the fridge and taking out a can of soda. She was about to walk to the couch when she stopped in the hallway. She was feeling pretty tired, so it would be best to do her homework now so she could go to sleep early. She decided to eat some chips in her room while she got started on homework. Sue turned and walked into her room, closing the door behind her so Axl wouldn’t disturb her when he got home from school. Sue walked into her room, about to lie down on her bed when she realized she had left her bag in the living room when she had first walked in. She exhaled noisily and set down the chips and soda on her stand. Turning around to walk out to get her bag, she almost bumped into the bed. She still couldn’t get used to the bed being there. Outside, a faint ringing was heard and Sue realized it was the phone. She rushed out of the room and into the kitchen to grab the phone.

  
“Hello?” She asked into it, already knowing who was on the line.

  
“ _Sue? Hi, was the package delivered already?_ ” Frankie asked, her voice static-y over the phone. Sue smiled and leaned on the counter behind her.

  
“Yeah, mom, it was. I signed for it and everything.”

  
“ _Ok, that’s good, Sue. What’re you up to now?_ ”

  
“Well, I’m about to start my homework and have a snack.”

  
“ _Good. Did the school say anything about your leaving early today?_ ” Frankie questioned.

  
“No, mom, your phone call about me having to take care of a sick relative did wonders.” Sue laughed into the phone and lightened visibly when she heard Frankie laughing with her.

  
“ _How’s Axl—Brick don’t do that, you’re letting all the air out!—you know what, Sue, I’ll call you back later, alright? Make sure you do your homework and try to make Axl do his, ok?_ ” Frankie sounded exasperated and for a second Sue was glad that she hadn’t gone on the trip. Ten hours in the car with everyone? She loved her family but enclosed spaces with them tended to not be fun at all for anyone.

  
“Sure, mom. I’ll tell Axl when he gets home. Though I doubt he’s going to want to do anything after practice. He gets out late today, I think.” Sue mumbled into the phone and longed for her chips. Frankie mumbled her own goodbye to Sue and hung up, already arguing with Mike. Sue laughed to herself and put the phone back in its place. She went to the front door where she had dropped her bag and picked it up, walking back to her room. She couldn’t help but feel happy that she had the house to herself for a couple of hours. Axl had practice until late today so he wouldn’t be getting home until after seven. Maybe she would take a nap while the house was quiet and peaceful.

  
\--

  
“Hey, Axl.” Stacey hummed into his neck, where she had pushed her face into. Axl was leaning back on the drivers’ side of his car and Stacey was practically mauling his neck in the school parking lot. In plain view of anyone that happened to walk by. That turned out to be Sean and Darrin who both shot him easy grins and thumbs up. Axl smirked at them and winked. They both laughed and began whispering to each other. Axl focused his attention back on the girl currently trying to suck his soul out through his neck—and how had he forgotten about her? Stacey’s hand went from his hair to his shoulder. It slid down, sensually, coasting past his ribs, his hips. It reached around to his backside and squeezed. Axl jerked forward and into Stacey, who really wasn’t complaining if her breathy moans were anything to go by. Axl opened his eyes—and when had he closed them—and looked around, just noticing the stares they were attracting in the parking lot.

  
“Stacey, come on, let’s get inside the car.” He murmured into her shoulder, his tongue darting out and licking a long stripe from her collarbone to the spot where the shoulder and neck meet. She shuddered and nodded, leaning back and looking at him in the eyes. Her gaze was sort of unfocused and it shot a thrill through Axl, he did _that_. She pushed off of him and began making the trek around the car to the passenger side, her steps wobbly. He grinned to himself and unlocked the door, getting in and turning on the car.

  
“This is a… interesting car,” Stacey hedged, looking around the small area. Axl laughed and shook his head.

  
“It’s a major suck-fest if that’s what you mean by ‘interesting’. But, well, it gets the job done.” Axl shrugged and put the car in drive, peeling out of the parking lot and into the street. “You wanna stop and get something to eat?” He asked in an absent tone. Stacey reached over and put her hand on his shoulder.

  
“Sure. But first—“ And she unclasped her seatbelt and leaned over, her head lowering towards his legs. Axl jerked his arm, swerving the car sharply before getting back into the correct lane.

  
“Holy fu—“

  
\--

  
Axl stepped out of the car, his legs feeling heavy and laden but jelly-like at the same time. He closed the door behind him and his mind flashed back to the events that had just happened. He couldn’t believe Stacey Connors had gone down on him while he was driving. He never thought any girl would be into that. Stacey stepped out of the car as well, grabbing her shoulder bag and wiping her mouth with her thumb. She locked eyes with Axl over the hood of the car and smirked devilishly, flicking her tongue out of her mouth and licking at a spot above her lip. Axl’s eyes darkened and he jerked his head towards the house.

  
“Follow me.” He said and waited for her to walk around the car. She finally reached him and followed when he began walking at a leisure stroll. She grabbed his hand in hers and smiled when he looked over at her questioningly. They both walked up the front door, Axl taking out his keys and opening the door. He dropped his bag right by the door and Stacey followed suit.

“So, where’re your parents?” She asked, taking a few steps forward and looking around the house. Axl shrugged even though she couldn’t see the gesture.

  
“They went up to Washington. Won’t be home for a couple of days.” He smiled to himself, once again not believing that his parents had left them alone.

  
“So you have the house all to yourself then?” Stacey turned and smiled at him. She reached up and ran a hand through her hair, her fingers trailing from her hair to her collarbone. Axl couldn’t help but follow the path that they left.

  
“Sort of. My sister stayed behind with me.” He murmured.

  
“Oh? I didn’t even know you had a sister. Is she coming soon?” Stacey asked.

  
“No, she has a meeting. Won’t be home for hours.” Axl stated.

  
“Good. Let’s use that time wisely, right?” She looked up at him through her lashes, smiling when he nodded his head. “Great! Show me the way to your room, then.”

  
Axl grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hallway.

  
\--

  
Sue woke up with a start. She was puzzled, couldn’t figure out why she woke up so abruptly. She looked around the room and noticed where she was. It seems she had falling asleep while she was doing her homework. Her books were strewn all around her and she was in an awkward position, half her body on the bed, half her body off it. She groaned to herself and despaired when she thought of all the homework she still hadn’t done. Looking beside her she noticed the time on the clock that was on the nightstand. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. School had let out about an hour and a half ago. She looked around the room and figured she could sleep another hour or so, no harm done. She grabbed all her books and stacked them on the floor next to her bed so she could lie down comfortably in her bed. Sue burrowed into her bed and debated for a moment on whether or not to use her comforter.

  
And that’s when it happened.

  
Her bed rocked forward with a thump before going back to the original position against the wall. Sue shot up in alarm and looked around. Was it an earthquake? A tornado? It happened again. And again. And again. Ok, it couldn’t be an earthquake because earthquakes didn’t happen in short spurts. The frame that was hanging above her bed was knocked forward and fell onto her bed, where her head had just been. Sue slowly got out of bed and noticed that her entire wall seemed to vibrate in a set rhythm. She was about to walk out of the room to see if it was happening outside as well when she heard it.

  
A moan. And a… purr?

  
Was there a cat in the house? Even if there was it would have to be a pretty big cat to make her wall vibrate like that. Sue sighed and turned to walk towards her door. Something was always wrong with the damn house, they could never catch a break. Her hand reached out and grabbed her doorknob, but she paused and tilted her head a little.

  
“ _Oh, fuck, Axl!_ ” A distinctly female voice that was most decidedly not a cat could be heard through the wall. All the blood drained out of Sue’s face and she stumbled back away from the door. She realized what was happening.

  
Axl was in the next room. Having sex.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sue and Axl deal with shit. And then inexplicably start up some new shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is about 11k in words and about 36 pages in my writing program. In case you're interested.

Sue was going out of her mind. How dare Axl do this? Did he have no respect for the family home? Oh, who was she kidding, of course he didn't have any respect for the house in which she and her little brother and her parents slept, ate, showered in. He was so selfish, always was and she had no doubt that he always would be. What was she supposed to do now? Go and bang on the door to get them to stop? No, from the sounds of it it seemed things had been going on for a while, it would look so creepy if she went and knocked on the door after they had been going at it for however long. God, she couldn't believe Axl. The nerve! 

“ Axl, baby, God, right there!” Sue’s eyes widened so much she was afraid they would pop right out of their sockets, and then really what would she do with no eyeballs? She couldn't believe the position dumb Axl had put her in. What was she going to do? Maybe she could leave and come back in a couple of hours when she was sure they would be finished? Hours? How long did it take for them to… finish? She wished she paid more attention in the hallways when she would overhear things regarding… sex, there she said it! Her bed frame lurched forward violently causing Sue to almost jump out of her skin and she blushed a deep red when she heard a masculine grunt. That was her brother. She could be mistaken, but she was pretty sure that there was a rule on this green earth that a girl should never have to listen to her brother make any type of sex sound whatsoever. 

Sue heard a high pitched keening sound and the girl, whoever she was, started to get progressively louder. Sue wanted to die right where she was standing. If she left they would be sure to hear something, given how much of a necessity it was to leave like a ghost she would most likely trip or injure herself in some kind of way, because that’s just how her life worked, it would be remiss of her to think otherwise. The best and most practical course of action would be to stay in the room and pretend she wasn't here at all. But how long would it take for them to finish? How was she going to handle listening to the rest of the little show. Her wall vibrated  a little more insistently, as if on cue. She closed her eyes and wondered how she got into these situations. First it was the hobo penis, and now this. What was next? Would she actually stumble onto something worse? Her parents having sex maybe? Sue’s whole body shuddered and her mind tried to implode, delete that thought. 

“God, God, God!” 

“No, it’s Axl, baby.” Sue actually rolled her eyes at that one. She wasn't entirely sure given how clueless she was about this subject, but even she could guess that that was probably cliched and not as sexy as Axl presumably thought it was. Okay, so plan of action: She would try do her homework and try her damnedest to ignore what was going on in the next room. But she definitely could not go anywhere near her bed, not if she didn't want to get rocked along for the ride. She grabbed her books and with a firm stride walked over to her closet, opened it, and sat under her clothes. She would do her homework in here because it was as far as she could physically get from the wall and from Axl’s explicit activities. She sat down, her mind made up, and opened up a textbook to begin her work. What she didn't count on was noticing how loud Axl and his little friend were now that she was no longer having an a mini aneurysm. 

“Stacey, Jesus, turn over, arch your back” Axl’s voice was deeper than she had ever heard it and pleading in a way she never thought he would ever sound. She frantically closed her eyes as if that would help her block out the sounds of something she didn't want to listen to, but it was futile. The wall and her bed frame were rocking at a furious speed and the kitten lady’s cries were to the point where Sue began wondering if the neighbors could hear what she was being forced to listen to. Kitten lady’s cries were cut off right in the middle of a mewl and she wondered if they had finished, but realized with despair that her cries and purrs were just muffled, as the wall and the bed frame were still vibrating and rocking. She was helpless to watch as the frame shook and rocked and realized with despair that she wasn't making it a point to not listen anymore. She watched—and listened—and just when she was getting ready to stand up and leave, sound exploded from both counterparts in the other room and everything just—stopped. Heavy breathing was heard and she even heard the sounds of the comforter being rustled. How thin were these walls? How had they never realized how thin these walls were? Probably because neither of them were supposed to be doing these activities in the first place. When did Axl even start having sex? She couldn't help but be mildly disappointed that he was having sex all willy nilly. Sex was for someone you shared a deep bond with, and she knew the kitten lady was not one for Axl. He didn't have a girlfriend. Not since Cassidy, anyway. 

Sue rose from her spot in the closet and inched her way towards the wall, willingly. Were they going to go to sleep now? If they went to sleep then she could sneak out and then “come home” very, very loudly. But how long would it take for them to fall into a sleep deep enough where they wouldn't notice her door being opened? That would probably take too long and Sue didn't want to wait long. She didn't know why but she didn't want Kitten Lady in the house any longer. It was like she had an itch that wouldn't be soothed until there was no evidence in the house left of this unspeakable act. 

“Axl, get up, get up! Take me home, my dad is going to be home soon and he knows I don't have extracurriculars today.” Kitten Lady sounded whiny and spent and Sue briefly wondered who it was. She was dying to know who it was in that morbid curiosity kind of way, like when you slowed down near a car accident, even if there was a chance you might see something that would give you nightmares for weeks. She wanted to put a name to the purr. 

“In a minute, just let me rest for a second.” Axl sounded undeniably spent and Sue knew that voice. That was his close his eyes and fall asleep for hours upon hours regardless of responsibilities voice. Sue wanted to weep. It wouldn't do her any good if Axl fell asleep and Kitten Lady stayed awake. She despaired, where was Lady Luck? 

“No! Wake up! I need to get home!” Kitten Lady was starting to sound annoyed. She rejoiced silently. She would probably nag Axl into taking her home! Looks like Lady Luck was finally starting to pity her predicament. She did a little wiggle in place and was happy enough to hear rustling in the next room. Movement was her friend!

“Fine, let me get my clothes, get dressed.” Axl was curt and sounded slightly peeved, and a part of Sue took perverse pleasure in the fact that dumb Axl wasn't getting to enjoy his little afterglow, or whatever it was called. She heard more rustling and the sound of zippers in the next room, she could die from her happiness. They were going to leave, she was going to be blissfully alone where she could try to get some bleach to erase this unfortunate event from her innocent little mind. 

“Pass me my panties, Axl.” Who even said panties anymore? It sounded so weird. Pan-tees. What? Sue couldn't hate more hate Kitten Lady a little more. 

Finally, finally, the sound of the door being opened was heard and Sue jumped a little in place. She tried to hold as still as possible when she heard the footsteps right outside her door and managed to hold her stance until she heard the front door open then close. Once she heard them close it’s as if every bone in her body dissolved and she landed in a heap on her floor, next to her bed. Finally, her ordeal was over. But wait, she still wanted to appease her morbid curiosity. Who exactly was Kitten Lady? She jumped up from her floor, with who knows what strength, and awkwardly ran to her window. Thankfully her window overlooked the parking space and she was able to get a clear view of Axl, who looked loose-limbed and Kitten Lady. Stacey Connors. Stacey Fucking Connors. Sue turned away from the window and walked back to her bed. She sat despondently and wondered just when exactly she started to care about who her brother involved himself with. 

—

“Sue” Axl screamed into the house when he got home from dropping Stacey at her house, all the way across fucking town. He wouldn't have minded as much if she had just let him sleep for a little while after they had finished fucking, just how he was prone to do, since sex took a lot out of him, he worked hard! He walked into the house taking off various articles of clothing and dropping them wherever he was, figuring Sue would just pick up after him anyway. He figured Sue should be home by now, the late bus would've dropped her off 10 minutes ago, unless she had gone to Carly’s house or something. Which he doubted since Sue would want to get home straight away, especially since mom and dad weren't around. She was such a goody-two-shoes. It sickened him, he tried to convince himself. He went straight to Sue’s room to see if she would fix him a snack. He was hungry especially after his after school activities. Sue’s door was closed but he grabbed the doorknob, twisted, and barged in anyway. It took him a second to process what he was seeing. 

Books and notebooks were strewn on the floor as if she was trying to do homework for all the subjects at once. He looked up, quickly finding a human shaped lump under the comforter on Sue’s bed. Without his permission, a fond smile found its way onto his face. He shook his head, annoyed, and stalked forward. He threw himself on the bed and leaned forward to poke at the lump. 

“Get up, Sue-face. Jeez, mom and dad haven't even been gone a whole day and you're already slacking, just sleeping and lazing around. What would they say if they saw you right now? Sue? Sue! Wake up, I’m hungry!” Axl was whining and poking insistently at the lump. He moved back when the lump shifted and rose, revealing a very angry Sue underneath. 

“I wasn't sleeping, moron. Leave me alone, I have homework to do.” Sue glared at him and threw herself back into the comfort of her pillow. Axl didn't let that stop him. 

“You’re not even doing homework, dork. Come on, I’m hungry!” Axl began pulling at the comforter. Sue retaliated by grabbing it and trying to pull it back to cover herself. 

“Axl, stop! Go and fix yourself a damn snack if you’re so hungry, I’m sure not going to do it for you.” Sue muttered and glared again at Axl. Axl sort of reeled back for a second, before responding the only way he knew how. 

“What the fuck is your problem? God, no wonder you have no fucking friends.” He grumbled darkly before getting up and exiting the room—leaving a devastated Sue behind. 

—

Sue didn't leave her room for the rest of the night, and that was fine with Axl. H fixed himself the works: popcorn, soda, and some frozen pancakes and parked his butt in front of the TV where he planned to stay for the rest of the night if he could help it. Unfortunately for him, it seemed like although his afternoon was fucking fantastic, his night was going to be nowhere near as good. The phone rang shrilly, disturbing his single-handed focus on the TV. He groaned lightly at first and increased the noise if only to bother Sue, because fuck her. 

“ _Hi sweetie! How’s the empty house treating you?”_ Frankie’s voice was grating and Axl managed a sigh to try and contain his annoyance. His mom didn't have to bear his bad mood, that was all for Sue. 

“Fine, how’re you guys?” Axl settled in to make small talk with his mom, not minding that she was cutting into his TV time, he figured he would have all night to watch TV, after all, there was no one here to enforce any type of bedtime for him. 

“ _Well you know how it is when Hecks get into any type of small space. We’re almost there though, your dad is worried we won’t make it on time to sign in, wouldn't that be just our luck?”_ Frankie laughed a little but Axl was able to detect an undercurrent of actual worry and Axl was reminded how glad he was that he didn't have to go with them. The drive back with Mike would be horrible if they didn't get a chance to even enter Brick into the competition. 

“I’m sure you're going to make it on time, don't worry. You know dad always freaks out for no reason.” He threw some popcorn kernels in the air and caught it in his mouth, internally pumping his fist when he caught it in his mouth in the perfect arc. 

“ _Yeah, I know. Where’s Sue, I don't hear her at all. Did you kill her?”_ Frankie laughed again and this time there was no undercurrent of emotion. 

“I don’t know she hasn't came out of her room since she got home a couple of minutes ago.” Axl mentally shrugged it off because he didn't care what was up with Sue—he didn’t. 

“ _A couple of minutes ago? She went out?”_ Frankie queried. 

“What? No. She had extracurriculars mom, the late bus just dropped her off a couple of minutes ago. Jeez, you've been gone one day, mom.” 

“ _Wow, sweeties, it’s honestly so worrisome that you guy do not talk at all. Axl, I got your sister out of school early so she could be home for our package to get delivered. She's been home since before you got home. Wait a minute, where were you? We told you to go straight home from school, Axl!”_ Frankie’s voice rose in pitch and Axl straightened up on the couch. What? 

“Wait, what? What the hell, mom, why didn't you get me out of school early?” Axl swore his whole family was against him. Why the fuck did Sue get to go home early and he had to stay all day in school? Granted, he had a very good end of the day so he was very glad that he didn't have to go home early, but he could still bitch about it, because no one was the wiser, and any other day he would be ecstatic to go home early and sit around waiting for a package. 

 _“Because you can’t afford to miss another day of English class, that’s why! Speaking of which, how was your test today?”_ Axl groaned, he _so_ didn't want to be speaking about school over the phone with his mother right now. God, she was a thousand miles away, shouldn't he be getting a break from her nagging? 

“It went fine, mom, God!” There was a slight shuffling over the phone, and Axl perked up. Shuffling meant good things for him. 

_“Mike, honey, you missed the exit! Now we’re really gonna be late! Quick do a U-turn!”_

_“Do a U-turn, what? Frankie, we’re on the highway how the hell do you expect me to do a U-turn?”_ Axl brightened at his father’s grumbling voice over the phone, even if it sounded slightly muffled.  
_“Axl, sweetie, i’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Make sure you go to sleep at a decent time tonight, do not stay up all night watching TV, I mean it! Tell Sue hello from us, and thank her again for coming home early. Bye!”_ Frankie shut the phone before Axl could start grumbling about the unfairness of Sue getting to go home early and him having to finish the whole day at school. Honestly, she must’ve been home even before he— wait. He abruptly stood from the couch and froze. 

Was Sue home when he and Stacey—no. She couldn't have been. Sue would've burst out right away at him had she been home. He wouldn't have even made it into the living without her rushing at him for whatever stupid reason. But she wouldn't have come out if she had been upset with him, the way she was now. Even if she was upset with him, though, she wouldn't have stayed quiet once she heard what was happening. Sue definitely would've heard what was happening, he made it a point to be loud, he was as loud as he wanted, since he certainly had the freedom to do that. Every other time he had been with a girl it was a rushed encounter, trying to finish before anyone got home, or trying to finish and leave the girl’s house before anyone over there got home and found him and subsequently killed him. He immediately relaxed his stance, Sue wouldn't have stayed quiet, even if she was mad at him once she heard what was happening. Unless—what if she was upset with him _because_ of what went down that afternoon with Stacey? His body went rigid again. What if that’s why she was upset with him? But he had been with Stacey for over an hour, and she certainly wasn't quiet, how come Sue hadn't come out and asked for them to stop? Axl groaned quietly, of course she wouldn't come and tell them to stop, hell, the girl had to work herself up to even say the word penis, why the fuck would she willingly subject herself to the actual act of the word that she couldn't even say? He flopped on the couch and buried his achingly flamingly face in his hands. Axl Heck didn't _do_ embarrassment, not usually, but this was a special circumstance. His sister had heard him having sex. 

Sue had listened to him getting off. 

—

It was nearing 2am when Axl gave up all pretenses of actually being interested in the infomercials on the screen. Turns out, watching TV at 2am wasn't the greatest accomplishment, he was actually quite bored. Not only that, but once he made his breakthrough earlier, he wasn't really feeling up to doing much of anything. He loathed to admit it but the afternoon that he had wasn't looking so great anymore. He accidentally made his younger sister, his younger and innocent younger sister listen to him having sex. He actually felt pretty bad about the whole situation and wanted to rectify it as soon as possible. How, he had no idea. He grabbed the remote and reached up to turn the TV off. He wasn't fooling anyone. He got up and picked up his plates—shocking—and took them to the kitchen. He dumped them in the sink and left them there because really, this was Axl. He turned the light off in the kitchen and turned down the hallway ready to go to his room before stopping in his tracks. Once again, the light to Sue’s room was on. Really, didn't the girl sleep? She was probably trying to finish the homework, he remembered those textbooks and notebooks strewn all about her floor. He walked quietly, intending to go to his room, before stopping in front of her door. He looked down at his traitorous feet and willed himself to keep walking and to go to his room. He really needed to stop the habit of going into her room late at night, nothing fun ever happened in that room for him. So why couldn't he get his feet to move? Would it be better to try and get this situation sorted out tonight? He had all weekend to fix the issue—if there even was an issue. Who’s to say she was even home? Maybe she was home to pick up the package and then went out again to do some no doubt dorky shit. Axl swayed softly in place debating whether or not to go in, and who was he kidding? Everybody and their mother knew he was going to go in. 

He shot up a quick prayer that Sue would be sleeping before reaching forward and turning the knob. 

—

Sue was tired, but not tired. Did that make sense? Maybe she was so tired she was past the point of making sense. God, what was wrong with her? She had always made sure to get her homework done on time and made sure she was in bed and sleeping at a certain time to make sure she got her full allotted time for rest so she could wake up bright and early the next day, refreshed and ready to learn and have a great day. Lately though, it seemed like there weren't enough hours in the day to get everything she needed to do done, and she ended up staying up ridiculously late. In a way, she was glad that she was staying up later. Sue had come to cherish these quiet hours of the morning when nobody was running around screaming about one problem or the other. It was the nice and relaxing kind of quiet and to be honest, she felt she got her best work and thinking done at this hour. It was why she was still up, trying to finish her homework from the day even though she had the whole weekend to get it done, but she didn't want her homework weighing on her mind the whole weekend, she preferred instead to get her homework done right away so she wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of the weekend until she was in school again. She had no idea how Axl was able to not do it and also not worry about—no, who cared what Axl did or didn't do? He wasn't her problem and she certainly didn't need to be picking up his habits. She paused and leaned back in her bed for a second before stretching and yawning. Sue had been seated at her desk doing her homework before deciding to get up and change in her pajamas. She had taken off her bra and slipped into one of Mike’s large t-shirts, not bothering with pants since she had no plans whatsoever to leave the sanctuary of her room. Her shirt rode up as she stretched her long arms behind her and she pushed her books aside to lay down for a moment on her bed. She startled in place when her door swung open and her eyes immediately found Axl’s blue ones. Internally, she wanted to scream. What was he doing up? She figured she wouldn't  have to deal with him until at least tomorrow, but given how they had both spent their last couple of nights, she really should've expected this. Hindsight is twenty twenty, though.  
“What’re you doing in here? Shouldn't you be sleeping?” And for that, she could've kicked herself. When did Axl ever do what he was supposed to do? She cringed when he stepped forward in her room and closed the door behind him. Why did he close the door? It was probably a habit, she figured, given how he had had to close the door behind him the past couple of times so as to not wake anyone else in the house. And that right there was a red flag, really. Past couple of times? Since when did she begin to get used to his nightly visits? How could she get used to it? It had happened, what, two times? 

“Were you home early?” Axl blurted, shifting in spot, not really looking at her. Now this, came as a shock to her. Her face immediately flamed and Axl chose that moment to look at her for one, two, three seconds, before he moved, startling Sue once again. He groaned, (Sue didn't remember the groan from earlier, the deeper one—she didn’t.) 

“You were, weren't you? The tomato shade your face has gotten is proof enough, Sue!” When did he start shouting at her? Just why was he shouting at her? When did all of this become any of her fault? What was going on here? 

“Hey! Why’re you yelling at me? I’m not the one that brought Stacey Connors here and had my.. dirty little way with her!” Sue stood up from her bed to gain some leverage in this situation, then realized any leverage she might've gotten from standing up immediately flew out of the window once she realized she was standing in nothing more than a flimsy old t-shirt. 

“God, Sue, what the actual fuck? Why didn't you fucking say something?” Now _that_ was the question of the century. 

“How could I? What did you want me to do? Burst in your room and ask you nicely to ‘please stop what you're doing, hey would you like some cookies while I’m in here’?” Sue couldn't believe how he was trying to turn this whole thing back on her. Axl groaned again and walked a little further into the room, closer to her. 

“Anything, Sue, anything! God, I can’t believe you were right here when I was in there—that’s so fucking invasive.” He strode forward once more before collapsing on her bed horizontally, looking up at her with those dumb blue eyes. 

“Invasive? I was in my house, Axl, how was I supposed to know what you were planning on doing? I can’t believe you even brought someone in here to do that!” Sue had turned, facing her bed and Axl and was relieved to be getting a nice little breeze from the window to her back, she was so heated with this whole situation. 

“What do you want me to do, Sue? Fuck them in my car? Sorry, babe, there’s not enough space.” Sue scoffed, even as her cheekbones lit on fire, two high spots of red appearing on her face, while her ears felt like they had been doused in gasoline and lit up. 

“I don’t know, Axl, just not bring them here when I’m here?” 

“How was I supposed to know you were here? Why would you be here?” Axl’s eyes were open and boring into hers. And suddenly all the fight went out of her, because they were getting nowhere and it was late and she was tired, damn it. She leaned forward and slid her books of the bed, dumping them on the floor so she could deal with them tomorrow. She eyed Axl as she leaned to sit on her bed, drawing her legs up so she could sit with them crossed, keeping a careful watch of where to place her hands to avoid any kind of accident. Axl shifted a little and snapped his eyes down to her thighs and back up to her face, and she closed her eyes and leaned back into the headboard.

“Whatever, Axl, I don't even care anymore. Can you please leave so I can get some sleep?” She asked in the most polite tone she could manage.  
“No I don't want to leave until you tell me why you felt you couldn't say anything.” Her eyes snapped back open and fire lit itself under her once again.  
“ I was sleeping, okay? I was sleeping and then I woke up when my bed started moving and by then it was too late for me to make my presence known without looking like a total creep, okay? Can you leave now?” Sue couldn't even look him in the eyes anymore even though she wanted nothing more than to do just that so he could see how serious and furious she was. 

“Moving? Why was your bed moving?” Axl asked, perplexed. At that, Sue’s eyes snapped to him before looking away once again. Her face flamed up for the nth time in however short amount of time and she didn't bother to dignify that with a response. Axl shifted and leaned up on his elbows, looking like the perfect picture of relaxed except for his red ears, the only evidence that she wasn't the only one that was uncomfortable with this whole confrontation. 

“I don’t know,” She whispered, and darted a look at his face. He looked confused and determined. She had the sinking feeling that she wasn't done being embarrassed for the night yet. 

“Sue, why was your bed moving?” Axl asked again, and this time she knew she wasn't going to get out of this one. She shifted on the bed then stopped once she realized that she was giving away how uncomfortable she was, which would make Axl even more eager and determined to find out what she wasn't telling him. 

“It wasn't moving so much as it was … rocking.” Sue’s eyes closed of their own volition and she forced them to open to see his reaction. His face was still confused—he hadn't understood. 

“Rocking? What do you mean by rocking?” He asked again, and showcased his interest by sitting up, alert, eyes focused on nothing else except her. 

“Rocking, Axl, rocking, my bed was rocking!” How could he not understand? How? Wasn't he supposed to be all knowledgeable about this subject? Wasn't he just finished doing the rocking a couple of hours ago? Sue shifted onto her knees and leaned into Axl’s personal space, her face only a couple of inches away from his. From this distance she could see the faint freckles that ran along the ridge of his nose, something she had always secretly wished she had. 

“Axl. The bed was rocking. Just how your bed was rocking. _Do you understand what I am saying?_ ” And there it was. The dawning comprehension on his face followed by a shockingly fast amount of red, he was blushing so hard, it was quite alarming. She leaned back and heavily sat on her butt, her back against her headboard. 

“Oh. Thats—that’s what you mean.” At least he had the decency to be embarrassed about it. 

“Yeah.”

“Jeez, Sue. I’m sorry, I didn't realize, we share a wall now, I wasn't aware, I didn't think…” He trailed off, perhaps because there was nothing he could say now to take away her horrible afternoon, or perhaps it was just the overwhelming embarrassment he was feeling, not unlike her in the afternoon. 

“I mean, it’s okay, what else can we say now? It happened. The bed rocked, I almost got killed by my picture frame falling off the wall, it’s whatever.” Sue shrugged and got a vindictive feeling when she saw how worse that made Axl feel. He was still blushing and couldn't even look her in the eyes. 

“Your frame fell—? God, Sue. Listen, I’m sexually active now—“

“Uh, no, stop, I don't need to know what you do, I really don't want to know, Axl, stop!” Sue’s eyes were wide again and she was desperate to change the conversation, desperate for Axl to leave her room so she could quietly die in peace. 

“Sue, come on, this is just what we were talking about, I’m old enough to be having sex—“

“Okay, you can do that all you want, I just don't wanna hear about it, okay? Stop.” Sue was frantically trying to die, why wouldn't she die? It was her time to go. 

“Fine, Sue! I’m sorry you had to hear me going at it with Stacey Connors, but sex is a natural thing and there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, okay? Sex is natural and so are our bodies, so I really don't understand your attitude about this.” He wasn't embarrassed anymore, but annoyed. Sue paused a moment and looked at him. He quieted and looked back at her, red face and all. 

“I know that… that’s natural, that doesn't mean I want to hear you and Stacey going at it, Axl, there are some things that I could go my whole life without hearing and or seeing.” Sue was staring at Axl, making sure she wasn't looking anywhere but. It was easy to let her eyes slide past his, to try and distance herself from this conversation straight from hell. Axl shifted and Sue’s eyes immediately snapped to the movement before moving away to the window. 

“Listen, Sue…” 

“Yeah?” Sue forced herself to look at him, but it didn't matter because Axl wasn't even looking at her. He was looking at where she had just been looking a second ago—the window. 

“I understand why you were angry. This whole situation is… fucked. That being said, it was not my fault and it certainly wasn't your fault. Can we just please agree to never bring this up again?” Axl finally shifted his gaze to hers and their eyes met. It was a strangely intimate moment, maybe because of the late hour? The fact that they were alone in the room, nay, the whole house? The idea that they would be sharing a secret this big? Either way, Sue didn't like it one bit. It made her feel all tingly. Stupid secrets. 

“Yeah, you're right. Let’s just forget about this whole ugly situation.” But there was one thing still bothering her, something that she couldn't let go of. 

“Ok, fantastic.” Axl’s whole demeanor changed. His previously tense posture completely loosened and sagged back into her bed, reminiscent of how he was lying in her bed before. 

“Axl?” Sue’s voice broke through the comfortable silence. 

“Yeah, Sue-nami?” 

“I’m glad we talked about this. But…” Sue’s voice trailed off. Axl looked curiously at her.  
“What? But what?” 

“Stacey Connors? Really?” Damned if this wasn't a distraction technique—sort of. 

“What about her?” Axl asked, still laying on his back on her bed. And really, shouldn't she be telling him to get up? To leave her room? That’s how it had been the last couple of times. 

“I understand that you have… needs. Couldn't you find someone better than Stacey Connors?” There it was. 

“Okay, please don't talk about my ‘needs’, Sue. And what’s wrong with Stacey Connors?” Axl leaned on his elbows and picked the top half of his body up, a move which caused his thighs to push into her legs. She leaned into them for a second before leaning back onto the headboard. Sue picked up her legs and hugged her knees to her chest, and now she could think straight when the heat of Axl’s legs weren't emanating and distracting her. 

“Stacey Connors is just a sucky human being. Why can’t you find someone like Cassidy?” Sue complained. Axl stiffened. 

“Okay, what does no one understand about the fact that she broke up with me? Do people like hearing me say that she broke up with me? Is that what it is? She broke up with me! So sorry to all of you Cassidy lovers but she dumped me like yesterday’s leftovers. Enough about fucking Cassidy,  Jesus Fucking Christ.” Spittle flew out of his mouth, and Sue couldn't help but feel a stab of pity for him. She leaned forward and dropped her left leg down to the floor, bending her right one at the knee. She put her hands on his chest and pushed—until Axl fell back on her bed. The breeze came in through the window, a little colder than before, and she shivered. It must be really late if the breeze was that cold. Axl looked up at her, open and trusting, Sue kept her hands where they were, on his chest. 

“You know what, Axl? Cassidy sucks too. I don't know why she broke up with you, she’s not as smart as I thought she was. I’m not saying date her—she doesn't deserve you. As much as it pains me to say this—she was a good girlfriend before she got hit with the stupid ray. She was nice and loyal and she was a good influence on you. I’m saying find someone that makes you feel like how she made you feel.” Sue’s eyes were wide, honest, sincere. Axl broke her gaze. He shifted a little under her hands, she left her hands. 

“I don’t want to find someone like her.” Axl sighed. 

“Not someone like her. Someone that makes you feel how she made you feel. All those nice and warm feelings.” Sue explained. 

“No.” 

“And why not? Don’t you miss those feelings?” 

“I don’t miss those feelings at all, Sue, believe it or not. You know why?” Axl sounded hesitant, like he wasn't sure he wanted to share this with her. She leaned further into him, her hands sliding from his chest to his shoulders. Axl’s eyes flicked down and back up to her face. 

“Why?” Sue breathed. 

“Because as nice as those feelings were, all I remember vividly is how fucking shitty it felt after she broke up with me. And I’m not too keen to get into another relationship that ends with me feeling those feelings. Once was enough, thanks.” Axl looked up at Sue—who was looking down on him. Really, when did she start hovering above him? Who thought this position was a good one? Why did she do these things to herself? 

“Axl, you can’t live your life afraid of getting your heart broken again.” Sue whispered down at him. 

“Afraid? Of getting my heart broken?” Axl scoffed. “Sorry, I think you're confusing me with one of your little girlfriends, Sue-face.” Sue squinted down at him. 

“Okay, Axl. I’m just saying you should find someone better, is all.” Sue pushed herself off Axl and leaned back out of Axl’s personal bubble. When did she breach it? Axl huffed, looking put out for a moment. 

“Thanks for the advice, Sue-face. For now, I’m content with dating around. Stacey it is.” 

“No!” Sue snapped and Axl startled. It was too quiet for sudden noises like that. 

“No? What’s got your underwear in a twist, dork?” Axl leaned up on his elbows again, lifting his upper body off her bed. Sue squirmed. 

“I just don't like Stacey Connors, Axl.” 

“Okay…?” 

“I don’t want you seeing Stacey Connors is what I’m getting at.” Sue whispered. Axl stared at her, shocked. 

“Sue… what—“ Sue shot off her bed. She began to pace. 

“I know! I know! I am appalled! Like, what right do I have to tell you who to see and who not to see? I have absolutely no say in that! But there’s just something about Stacey Connors, I don’t like her. She skulks around the school hallways like she’s planning the demise of anyone and everyone! Why does she look so nefarious? You know I wouldn't be surprised if she was related to Satan himself, Axl! We should really look into that, because I am sure, sure, that nobody wants to go to school with Satan’s offspring!” Sue paced, walking back and forth and working herself up into a frenzy. Axl sat up on the edge of her bed, and reached out, grabbing her, pulling her to him. She stumbled, tripped over her feet, and landed right in between his legs, his face mushed into her chest. Her braless chest. Her chest with her nonexistent boobs. She closed her eyes and resigned herself to the mortification. She felt Axl’s fingers twitch where they were wrapped around her dainty wrists. They both paused—breathed—tried to make sense of this abrupt change in the night. Sue was the first to move, taking a minuscule back, if only to get his face out of her chest, to try and repair her dignity however she could. Axl started, and also leaned back a little. She couldn’t help but notice that even though they both moved, she was still in the crux, between his legs, his arms wrapped around her wrists. 

“I won’t hook up with Stacey Connors again.” And she’ll be damned if that didn't surprise her more than the whole Axl’s face being shoved in her chest thing. She looked down at him. 

“What?” 

“I won’t see Stacey Connors again.” Axl repeated. God, she couldn't be hearing right. Maybe she died of embarrassment after Axl got shoved into her chest. 

“You won’t?” Sue murmured. And really? Why did this moment feel more personal, more intimate, than any other moments they had shared over the week? Probably because Axl was  giving in to her, agreeing to something she had no right to ask of him. Why did she care so much anyway about Stacey Connors? 

“No, I won’t. Not if she bothers you this much. Did she do something to you, Sue? Tell me if she did.” She had to close her eyes to block out his suddenly fiery eyes, eyes fired up on her behalf for something that didn't even happen. God. 

“She didn't do anything to me. She just rubs me the wrong way.” Sue admitted. Why was she still so close—so intimately close to him? Yet, she didn't move. Axl nodded and let go of her wrists. They felt warm, almost like they were on fire. She paid no mind to them. 

“Okay, good. Geez, how late is it anyway? We really need to stop doing this, Sue.” He grinned suddenly, and she had to suck in her breath. 

“Hey, no one told you to come in here! You came out of your own volition, I refuse to get blamed  this time for the late hour.” She stepped away from him as casually as she could and turned her back on him to walk over to the window. She reached and closed the window looking out at the empty and dark street before closing her blinds too. She took one, two, three short breaths before turning back around to her room. Axl was watching her, eyes hooded, a disconcerting look on his face. She crossed her arms, suddenly extremely self-conscious and cocked her eyebrow at him. He stared for a moment longer before standing and stretching. 

“Well, time for me to get to bed and not wake up until 3 tomorrow.” He twisted his back to each side, sighing with satisfaction when it popped. Sue snorted. She didn't make a move to step away from the window. 

“Okay, see you tomorrow.” She rubbed her hands up and down on her arms, feeling the goosebumps. Axl nodded and walked towards the door. He reached out and opened it, pausing for a second before closing the door behind him. Sue released the breath she didn't know she had been holding and almost melted into the window. She shook herself out, walked over and plopped on her bed. She listened to Axl walk in the hallway. He went into the bathroom. Sue sighed and rearranged herself to lay on her bed for sleep. Who cares if she didn't brush her teeth. She was just too tired to get up and go brush her teeth. She needed to sleep, to try and get her internal clock on some sort of schedule that resembled normality. 

It had nothing to do with Axl. Nothing to do with him at all. 

—

Morning dawned bright and early for an Axl who had forgotten to close his blinds or hide under his covers. He scrunched his eyes tight to try and block out the damn sunlight. Why the fuck was it so bright anyway? Who did that? Whose fault was it? Whose ass did he have to kick? He groaned and turned his back on his window to try and go back to sleep. But it was futile because he was already awake. If he wanted to sleep more he would have to do it in front of the TV on the couch. He cursed quietly and went to get up. He picked up his phone on his way to the bathroom, turning it on and groaning louder when he saw the time. It was 7am! He didn't even wake up this early when he had class, much less on a sacred Saturday. He pushed the door open to the bathroom, not bothering to close it behind him. He set his phone down on the sink and walked over to the toilet, lifting up the cover and the sink before parting his boxers and doing his business. He yawned and scratched at his belly with his unoccupied hand before doing a little shake when he determined he was finished. Axl walked over to the sink to grab his phone, not bothering to brush his teeth or wash his hands. Take that, Frankie! He yawned again as he exited the bathroom and walked down to the kitchen. Was Sue awake yet? How the hell was he up before Sue-face? How? He opened the fridge and grabbed the milk carton, sniffing it before taking a huge gulp straight from the carton. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and set the carton back in the fridge. He eyed the TV across the room and sighed. Watching TV didn't sound appealing at all. He weighed his options and decided to go wake Sue up. If he had to be suffering at this early hour then so did she. It was only fair. He retraced his steps before stopping at Sue’s door. It was concerning how often he had found himself standing here, but he chose not to dwell on that. He hesitated with his hand on the doorknob before pushing the door open. 

Sue was sleeping on her bed, curled up on her side, her legs pulled up to her chest. She had at some point kicked down the covers and they lay bunched up at her feet. Her long shirt had ridden up, possibly from tossing and turning during her sleep, and his eyes widened a fraction when he realized that her, her underwear was out. Not just her underwear, her butt itself. Butt? What was he? 13? But he didn't want to use the word ass when it came to sweet Sue. It was just too dirty to be used in regards to her. He looked away when he realized he was still staring at her exposed… underwear. Why did this have to be so difficult? All he had to do was wake her up. That’s what he came in here to do. He had to stomp over and pour water on her face or shake her awake, that was fucking it. That’s it. Yet here he was, paralyzed in her doorway. He walked the rest of the way in and  shut the door behind him. He stood in the middle of the her room like a fucking asshole before he lurched forward to prove something to God knows who before reaching her bed and sitting down at the foot of her bed. He sagged into it when Sue didn't wake up and he leaned back, the way he had been doing the past couple of days. One hand was behind his head acting as a pillow while the other one moved across her bed before coming in contact with her leg. He flexed his hand before reaching and resting his hand on her ankle. 

Axl closed his eyes. 

— 

Sue smothered a yawn into her pillow before opening her eyes. She looked around her eyes blearily, feeling eye boogers at the corners of her eyes. Her hands came up to rub at them. She shifted onto her back, blinking confusedly when she realized something was by her legs. She raised her head a bit and blinked down at the foot of her bed. A peacefully sleeping Axl had his arm thrown over his eyes, his mouth open, his hand resting on her ankle. Sue blinked a couple of more times to try and make sense of what she was seeing, but it was still the same scene and she was just as confused as before. She involuntarily kicked out the leg where Axl’s hand was resting on her ankle, accidentally kicking Axl in his side. He only grumbled a little and turned onto his side, facing her. He pushed closer and once again his hand reached out and landed on her ankle. Only it was slightly twisted because of how much closer he was to her. His fingers twitched and his hand slid up her leg. She watched as it slid up her shin and her knee before resting on the inside of her thigh right above her knee, leaving a trail of fire behind it. She watched his hand before turning her eyes to the still sleeping Axl. Sue closed her eyes against the onslaught of emotion—disgust, it was disgust, and tried to think of how she was once again in a weird position with Axl—her brother. This time it wasn't even her fault! She had been sleeping by herself in this room, not bothering anyone, just sleeping away. He was the one that snuck in all nefarious and decided to take a nap on her bed. And touch her inappropriately in his sleep. And it was inappropriate, yes sir. Sue threw her head back on her pillow and contemplated what she had done to deserve this. 

It wasn't like she didn't know that Axl was attractive. She had seen the endless amount of girlfriends that he brought over, had heard countless girls talking about him in classrooms and hallways and locker rooms. She knew intellectually and she knew because, well, she wasn't blind. The whole dark hair and light eyes really worked for girls. Girls as in not her.  Just girls in general. And sure she had a crush on Axl when she was younger, which she assumed was because of the hero worship for her older brother. It was easy to confuse the two feelings, of course. And yes, she often compared boys she liked to her brother. She just wanted to make sure that they weren't anything like him, that they didn't treat her as horrible as he treated her. That’s really when her crush—hero worship—ended. He grew up and decided he was too cool to hang around with his dork younger sister. And then he grew up some more and decided it was cool to pick on her and ignore her, like everyone else did. The months before she got used to that were the worst ones of her life. Pretty soon, her little inappropriate crush on her older brother went away, because what girl liked boys that treated them horribly? Aside from the ones that Axl said had “daddy issues”. And she googled it and she found validation. They did studies and found that siblings tended to date people that looked like their siblings because that’s what they found attractive. She saw stories of siblings that dated without knowing they were siblings through whatever freak circumstances. She wasn't a freak. It was a normal thing. She was fine with the knowledge that she HAD a crush on her older brother. But now? Axl was being nice to her, out of nowhere. He kept hanging around her, in her room, late at night. He kept seeking her out as if he genuinely enjoyed her company. And she really didn't know what to do with that. Because certain feelings were coming back and she didn't know what to do with that. She was too old to claim hero worship was the cause of it. And if she didn't have that, then what did she have? Nothing. She didn't even have the excuse that they didn't know they were siblings, because she knew, oh, she knew. She grew up with him, alongside him. The worst part? Those people that fell in love not knowing they were related? It was mutual. In this situation, she was the freak with the inappropriate feelings for her older brother. Her one-sided inappropriate feelings for her older brother. 

Sue shifted as much as she dared to without disturbing Axl who was sleeping in her bed. God, what was her damage? Why did Axl keep seeking her out? Why did he do it in the late late hours of the night? She wasn't responsible for her actions or her thoughts or her feelings past a certain time. Dangerous things happened late at night. Dangerous thoughts and dangerous actions. It was easy to think or do in the late hours of the night, with darkness as a cover. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to think of how horrible Axl treated her. But the thing was, no matter how horrible he treated her, he would always do something nice afterwards. And she would forgive him, because she loved him. How much of that was familial love and how much was the other dangerous kind? 

Axl shifted, and she froze. His hand slid further up and she opened her eyes, wide. His fingers curled loosely around her thigh, dangerously high. She closed her eyes again as the feeling overtook her body. The sensation itself was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Even better than those couple of times when she had touched herself late at night. And this? This was exactly what she was afraid of. She lifted her head and stared down at Axl, unlocking her limbs and kicking him with purpose in his stomach. His breath left him, his hand tightened on her thigh, and he woke up wildly, breathing harshly. His eyes darted around her room before landing on her. She looked back at him, heart thumping in her chest so loud she was sure he could hear it. It was all she could her, anyway. He moved to sit up, stopping when he realized that his hand was on her thigh. High up on her thigh. She looked at him with open curiosity to see how he would react. Gone were her earlier thoughts. She stared unashamedly at Axl. An Axl that still looked to be confused with sleep. He watched his hand on her thigh, tightening then loosening his hand, as if he couldn't believe it was really his hand on her thigh. His eyes snapped up to hers, and his hand stayed on her thigh, infuriatingly. She watched her for a moment longer before deliberately sliding her gaze downwards, eyes sliding over his bare chest, his stomach, his hips, before coming up to watch his hand on her thigh, just as he had been doing a moment ago. She watched and felt him tighten the hold he had on her thigh and brazenly, Sue moved her leg down, causing his hand to glide further up on her thigh. She heard him suck in a shaky breath and looked up through her lashes at Axl. _Who was she?_ What was she doing? Axl stared back and once again flexed his fingers over her thigh. Axl had a light flush over his cheekbones, making his freckles stand out more prominently. He opened his hand, splayed his fingers out wide on her thigh. His fingers were skimming the bottom of her underwear, maddeningly. She took in a shaky breath of her own and raised her own hand—to do what she didn't know. 

The shrill ringing of the house phone tore them apart. Axl stood up so fast, she wondered if he felt lightheaded even for a second. She folded her legs into her chest, hugging them close, her arms around them. Axl was standing in the room staring unseeingly at who knows what. The phone continued to ring before cutting off. A second later it started back up again. Axl started, and Sue’s eyes snapped to him. 

“That’s probably mom.” He muttered before walking towards the door. Just like a couple of hours before, he stopped in her doorway, but this time he turned his head to the side to take one last glance at her. He exited the room and a second later Sue heard him answer the phone. She let out the breath she was holding and sagged back onto the bed. 

Jesus. 

—

“Hello?” Axl picked up the phone, his head spinning. 

“ _Axl? What are you doing awake before 1?”_ Frankie sounded shocked. Axl inexplicably became irate. She called this early interrupting— called this early to complain about him being up?

“Mom, what are you doing calling at 7 in the morning. Don't you have anything better to do? No, we haven't burned the house down yet, but there’s still time, no worries.” He exhaled loudly through his nose and abruptly sat down on the couch. 

“ _7? Axl, honey, it’s almost 12. Remind me to never wake you up before 12, Grumpy.”_ Frankie laughed into the phone whilst all of Axl’s sudden anger disappeared. Almost 12? Did he really fall asleep on Sue’s bed for 4 hours? Well less than that because what just happened felt like it was hours. What did happen? He rubbed a hand down his face, weary all of a sudden. He jolted when he realized that Frankie was still speaking. He tuned back into the conversation. 

“ _—check in on you guys. I thought I would be speaking to Sue since I assumed you would be sleeping until 1 like you usually do. Where is Sue, anyway?”_ Frankie asked. Axl sighed and got up to bring the phone to Sue. 

“Hold on, let me get her for you.” Axl walked towards the hallway, legs heavy. Would she even want to see him? Did she blame him for what happened? He was the one to sneak into her room uninvited. He stopped in front of her door that was once again closed. He didn't remember closing the door behind him, did he? Did she close it? Did that mean that she didn't want to see or speak to him? Should he knock? He sighed irritably, angry with his uncertainty and hesitancy. He was about to lift his hand to knock on her door when the bathroom door behind him opened with a flourish. He turned quickly and came face to face with a surprised Sue. She blushed and seemed to force herself to not look away from him. He managed to force himself to smirk at her before thrusting the phone at her. 

“It’s mom.” Her eyes flickered and she reached her hand out to accept the phone he was handing to her. Their hands briefly touched and he couldn't help but notice that hers were trembling. Was she scared of him? Did she not want him touching her? What was she thinking about? His smirk fell and he began to walk away when her hand wrapped around his bicep, her other hand bringing the phone up to her ear. Axl froze. 

“Hi. mom!” She said cheerily into the phone, a smile lighting up her face when she heard her mother on the phone. She edged around him, hand still wrapped around his bicep. It slid down his forearm down to his wrist, only coming off at the last possible second, when her hand could no longer reach. 

He watched her walk away, smirk back on his face.

—

When she finally got off the phone with her mother, she went in search of Axl. Not surprisingly, she found him parked on the couch, remote in his hand. She couldn't help but notice that he wasn't on the phone talking to his buddies about weekend plans, and it seemed he was staring unseeingly at the TV, the way he had been when he stood up from her bed after—

She plopped down next to him, startling him. Perhaps she sat closer to him than she would've before. Perhaps. He didn't say anything. Their arms were touching and Axl leaned back into the couch, not sitting as rigidly as he was before, causing their arms and thighs to touch. He flicked a sideways glance at her, before turning back to the TV. 

“What’d mom say?” He asked nonchalantly. She flicked a glance at him before also looking at the TV. 

“Nothing much. Just how she thought that dad was going to be disappointed. Apparently all Brick’s been doing since they got there is reading his books.” 

“I could've told them that’s how it would be. Brick isn't really interested in anything besides his books.” Axl muttered and Sue hummed in agreement. She was watching the show that Axl had settled on. It was a group of men fishing in really bad weather. Why didn't they wait until it was sunny and nice before going fishing? They both watched in silence for a couple of minutes. 

“Why can’t they wait until it’s nice and sunny to go fishing?” She asked out loud, not expecting an answer. Axl never spoke when he was entertained with his shows. 

“Because Sue, no one is going to want to watch an hour of men sitting around waiting for fish to bite. That’d be a stupid show and it would be cancelled after like the first episode.” Axl responded to a surprised Sue, who turned and grinned at him. 

“This is still a boring show, Axl.” Axl turned towards her and gave her a small grin of his own. His eyes lit up and he sniffed delicately, adopting an offended air. 

“This show is the highest rated on this channel.” He squinted at her for a second, before Sue burst into delighted giggles. He chuckled with her. Sue was pleasantly surprised that they were managing to be civil with each other and not at all awkward with what happened. She got up from the couch. 

“I’ll make us some pancakes for a late breakfast.” She said, walking towards to kitchen, laughing at his enthusiastic whoop. 

“I’ll give you your pancakes once you change the channel,” She called over her shoulder. 

“Spoilsport!” Axl yelled. 

—

They both decided to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos, due to the lack of anything interesting actually being on TV. Axl was digging into his pancakes and watching TV, enjoying the heat emanating from Sue’s body. He didn't know what she was thinking but she sat close enough to him that her limbs were touching. The first time he thought it might've been an accident but now he was starting to think she was doing it with a purpose? What purpose was that? What was going through her mind? What did she want from him? It was debilitatingly crazy how things had changed these last couple of days. He tried to not think about it and focus on the show, but nothing was quite as funny as it should’ve been, especially with Sue pressing into him. What did she want from him? Whatever she wanted, if she wanted something, could he give it to her? Would he be willing? Did he want to? Did she even want anything from him? For all he knew, all of this was in his head and Sue just thought that this was some good old fashioned sibling bonding. He marveled at how badly he didn't want her thinking it was that. Surely she knew that this wasn't normal for siblings. Did he have a problem with that? Easily enough, the answer washed over him. No, he didn't have a problem with something not sibling-like happening. In fact, he had been thinking about nothing but. He finished with his pancakes and leaned forward to set his plate on the floor, before fully leaning back into the couch. And then he had the bright idea to… try something. They were both still in their skimpy sleepwear. Sue in one of Mike’s shirts and him just in his boxers, like usual. He put his left hand on his thigh, right next to Sue’s. Discreetly, he stared at her from his peripheral vision. She was still engrossed in the TV show. His hand twitched and moved a bit, until his pinky was resting lightly next to her bare thigh. He looked again, noticing she was still watching the TV, watching unlucky people fall and slip and catch fire. He flexed his fingers again until his ring finger was closer to her thigh than to his. It was an uncomfortable position where if he kept his hand like this for more than a couple of minutes it would definitely cramp. He looked at her to make sure that she was still distracted, only to find that she was no longer laughing like how she was a couple of seconds ago. Sue had a light flush and a small smile on her face. Axl almost smiled to himself. He liked this little game. Maybe even more than football. 

He became even bolder and moved his whole hand until it was resting entirely on her thigh. Sue was still looking at the TV, paying no mind to his hand on her thigh, for the second time that day. He breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't freak out about his hand, or about how he was being inappropriate with his touching. He turned and focused back on the TV, until once again he became bored. He looked and found her engrossed in the funny scenes once again, and he resolved to see what he could do to make her look at him. His thumb began moving in circles along the side of her thigh, and he felt her leg jump a little before settling down. He looked and saw that the flush was back. He began earnestly moving his thumb, and then his index finger, and then his middle finger. And then Axl started rubbing his hand up and down Sue’s thigh. He heard her breathing become a little labored, or was that his? He couldn't tell. Finally, finally, Sue turned to look at him, show forgotten in the background. He ceased his movements and watched as she bit her lip, looking down at his hand before back up at him. He leaned towards her, to do god knows what—

The doorbell rang. This time they didn't jump apart. They both turned towards the door and back to each other. Axl slowly lifted his hand off of Sue’s thigh and watched as she stood up. He watched her walk across to the door, and open it, hidden behind the door, because, well, she was still not wearing pants. He felt a little thrill when he realized that she had no problem with him seeing her like that—not anymore. He was too distracted by Sue to really hear any of what was happening, so it came as a shock when the door was pushed in, causing Sue to stumble back. He looked past Sue at the person strolling in like they paid the mortgage on the house. He sighed in dismay. 

“Stacey?”   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. It's been three years. Unfortunately, for whatever reason I lost the inspiration to continue and just recently got it back. Here is the next chapter for whomever is still interested. The story is still not finished, and I don't know when the next chapter will be up, hopefully it'll be less than three years this time.


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